hg convert - can't read from repo type

[Ken Blake]

I'm trying to convert a cvs repository.  I first created a small test
cvs repo and was able to convert that just fine.  I then tried to
convert my company's cvs repo and got the following error:

connecting to :pserver:ken at company.com:/home/dev/cvsroot
abort: main/star: can't read from this repo type

This was after a bunch of cvs rlog messages for each directory, which
took about 1/2 hour.  What does it mean by repo type?  The previous
line implies to me that it was able to connect to the pserver, or is
it saying it was only trying to connect and it failed?  Is it possible
for it to test the "repo type" before getting (I assume) the full log
of every file under cvs control so the error would come quickly.
Would the debug or traceback options be of help?  I don't want to run
this during the daytime as I'm not sure what impact this has on our
cvs server.  I haven't upgraded yet and am still using 0.9.4.

Thanks,
Ken