Locked admin directory ???

[Basil Chupin]

On 14/06/10 00:13, Larry wrote:
> On 06/13/2010 09:02 AM, Tom H wrote:
>    
>> On Sun, Jun 13, 2010 at 9:30 AM, Larry<larryesu at charter.net>   wrote:
>>
>>      
>>> I have a problem with not being able to install or even use apt-get
>>> because I keep getting this...
>>>
>>> Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily
>>> unavailable)
>>> E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is
>>> another process using it?
>>>
>>> Does anyone know how to kill this processor that seems to be still
>>> open...???
>>>
>>>        
>> You have to be root or use sudo.
>>
>>
>>      
> *Thanks, but I no that, when using apt-get or synaptic etc...But the
> problem that I am having is I can not use either apt-get or synaptic
> because something has it locked, why or what I have no-idea...This is
> what I am trying to find out... ;-)
>
> Thanks again Larry
>    

Sounds like apt-get/synaptic is still trying to complete its work but is 
stuck and therefore is 'locked' until it completes its task.

Do you reboot your computer or is it running 24/7? Rebooting may clear 
this lock. The easiest is to do the following otherwise one would need 
to go and find the "!lock" which is locking apt-get/synaptic - and I 
don't know where this could be without searching for it. (If you are 
using Firefox or Thunderbird you will find "!lock" in the /.FF or TB 
directory when either one is actually active.)

Otherwise, at terminal do "sudo ps aux" and look to see which PID the 
still running apt-get or synaptic has been assigned (which is causing 
the lock)...and kill it (you know how don't you? with "kill xxxxx" or if 
it doesn't want to get deaded then use apocalyptic "kill -9 xxxxx" where 
"xxxxx" is the PID number of the still running apt-get/synaptic. Just 
make sure that you use the right PID number, and don't mistype it :-) .)

BC


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