Ubuntu

Software index is broken

Asked by CaptKirkHolmes

I try to go to update manager and it tells me that "Software index is broken.....run "sudo apt-get install -f" etc etc. I opened a terminal and ran the requested command in both root and as user and got the following error. What do I need to do to resolve it?

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  postfix
Suggested packages:
  procmail postfix-mysql postfix-pgsql postfix-ldap postfix-pcre sasl2-bin
  resolvconf postfix-cdb
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  postfix
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
6 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/1092kB of archives.
After unpacking 2544kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
(Reading database ... 113648 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking postfix (from .../postfix_2.3.8-2_i386.deb) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/postfix_2.3.8-2_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/postfix_2.3.8-2_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

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Solved by:
Hanusz leszek
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Best Hanusz leszek (leszek-skynet) said : 		#1

Hello,

It means another program block the access to the /var/cache/debconf/config.dat file
Rebooting should solve this problem.

Revision history for this message
CaptKirkHolmes (kirkholmes) said : 		#2

Thanks Hanusz leszek, that solved my question.

Revision history for this message
ricardisimo (ricardisimo) said : 		#3

Rebooting was certainly not the solution here. Some kind soul at Launchpad sent me the following merciful tip:
sudo dpkg -P --force-depends <package [in my case libmjpegtools0]> && sudo apt-get install -f

Many kind thank yous to Mr. Chen.