error burning bootloader: linux, usbtinyisp, 328

Working on the problem I had last week, where my Arduino Duemilanove with ATMEGA 328 seems to have a corrupted bootloader.

I have borrowed a USBTinyISP and am trying to reprogram the bootloader, but I get the following error:

USB read error: expected 4, got -1
USB read error: expected 4, got -1
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.

I have tried both allowing the USBTinyISP to power the Arduino, and also powering the Arduino externally, via USB.
I'm using Ubuntu Linux and version 15 of the Arduino IDE.

Any suggestions?

I had this same issue until I ran Arduino as a superuser. Try sudo ./arduino

"sudo" advice works for me. thanks a lot