500 OOPS: vsftpd: refusing to run with writable root inside chroot

This is a result of a security "feature" that has been added in the latest update, and released in the Ubuntu 12.04 upgrade. The problem is that users' root directory is writable, which isnt allowed when using chroot restrictions in the new update. Fortunately, the good folks at The Fronteer Group have backported vsftp until the full release of ver 3 of vsftp comes out. So here is what you do:

1. login as root (or sudo..) and do the following:
2. apt-get install python-software-properties
3. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thefrontiergroup/vsftpd
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get install vsftpd
6. vi /etc/vsftpd.conf and add the following
allow_writeable_chroot=YES
7. sudo service vsftpd restart

source: http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/operating-systems-section/operating-systems-ubuntu/155-500-oops-vsftpd-refusing-to-run-with-writable-root-inside-chroot.html