broken files and apt get locked

[Joe Burgess]

As for the locked apt-get, are you running it as root (as in with sudo) 
or do you have the add/remove programs window open or the update manager 
open?  I know these are simple things, but sometimes people forget.

-Joe

uriah heep wrote:
> using a fresh instal of Gutsy  (7.10)
>
> When attempting to download VLC through apt get I got a notice of 4
> broken files.  I attempted to uninstall and to reinstall with no luck.
>
> I then started getting error   this might break  and no additional
> programs would be installed
>
> at one time started from command line to load java and the picture for
> java came up but there was no place to say ok I accept and the process
> hung there
>
> 1.  How can I unlock apt get?
> 2. How can I delete broken files witch seem to be preventing my
> installing anything else?
>
>