Bruce Marshall <bmarsh at bmarsh.com>

[Robin Taylor]

This page may help you
http://www.ubuntux.org/synaptic-sudden-reboot-exclusive-lock-problem
I had this problem a while back but cant remember exactly how it was fixed, 
the method above seems to fit

Rob

On Monday 04 June 2007 17:10, Steven Vollom wrote:
> I may be too old to figure out how these forums work, nonetheless, the
> gentleman in the subject line responded to someone in the forum relating to
> Administrative access.  Since I just formatted my hard drive twice due to
> being locked out of Adept Manager, and because my password was refused when
> I attempted to enter Administration to try to fix the problem, and because
> I am too old and stupid to figure out how to get a response from anyone, I
> just keep bumbling around trying to find someone with knowledge to share. 
> If I could afford to hire professional help, I would, but my annual
> retirement is about $7000 and my house payment is well over half of that,
> so there is no money for advice.  But I will keep trying because my
> computer is much of the only joy that I still get in life.
>
> Twice my computer has locked me out of Administration with the error: 
> Adept Manager - Read only mode - ! - You will not be able to change your
> system settings in any way because another process is using the packaging
> system database.  Probably some other Adept application or apt-get or
> aptitude.  Please close the other application before using this one.
>
> Since nothing else is running at the time, that I know of, I am locked out
> of making changes to the computer.  When I type in my password, I get that
> statement.
>
> I am the only one who uses my computer, so I have never created a password
> for the Administration.  By being the installer, I must have become the
> Administrator, because just to get into the Adept program, I had to use my
> password.  But now when I try to get into Adept or the Administration, I
> get the above statement over and over.
>
> This morning when the subject responded to someone, I tried to respond to
> him, because he was writing about something that I thought could solve my
> problem too.  I thought if I created a password for the Administrator, I
> might be able to get in to make changes if Adept should crash and lock me
> out of Adept again.  I do not know how to use the terminal or what words to
> type in to create a proper command.  I wanted to know how to type the
> command that would request a password for the Administrator.  Then I would
> be able to access the Administrator when Adept locked me out.  After
> reinstalling twice, I am learning a lot, however, it would be nice to not
> have to bang my head on a rock quite so many days before finding a solution
> to a problem.  No one ever responds when I talk in this way, but I don't
> know how to ask in another, and no one is willing to take the time to tell
> me how to change and do things right.
>
> Please help me.  When I finally figure out how to operate Kubuntu, I will
> repay your kindness by answering the questions of other rockheads like me
> and take that problem away from the forum.
>
> Thanks!
> Steven Vollom, artist and Shabakthanai of the forum