svn update error: "Can't find temporary directory. Internal error." ...What?

I’m getting this error when trying to update my blender svn directory:

joel@joel-p6610f:~/Documents/blender-svn/blender$ svn up
Updating ‘.’:
svn: E020014: Can’t find a temporary directory: Internal error

I have no idea what that means. Is it an issue with the svn server, or my computer? How can I contact the admins of the server to ask?