Android :: Ubuntu - Error - Failed To Create The SD Card

I see a lot of posts about writing to the SD card, but I believe my problem is different. I am unable to create the SD card during the process of building an AVD.

I initially tried to use the Android SDK and AVD Manager to do this, selecting
Name: my_avd
Target: Android 2.2 - API Level 8
SD Card: Size: 1024 MiB
Skin: Built-In: Default (HVGA)
Hardware: Property: Abstracted LCD Density, Value: 160

This pops up a window with the message:
"Result of creating AVD 'my_avd':
Error: Failed to create the SD card."

I tried to repeat the process from the command line, receiving a similar error:

CODE:........

Attempting to follow instructions for using mksdcard was equally unproductive; I think my basic lack of linux experience may be causing me a problem here. When I try to use mksdcard, it just reports that it cannot find the file or directory. Is the mksdcard tool available for use this way in linux?

CODE:..........

I've added the android tools directory to my PATH variable, but I feel like there is obviously something else I'm missing. Perhaps some kind of access rights?

Attempting to run the android command with sudo did not seem to help either:

CODE:..............

I even tried installing Eclipse and the ADT plugin and running the manager from there to no avail. Any tips would be most appreciated. Advanced warning that I am somewhat of a novice Linux user, so even if it seems like a no-brainer obvious thing to check, I could still have missed it.