Ubuntu
nautilus package

Upon trying to Upgrade to 7.10 I get the following error message: Unable to get exclusive lock ( possibly due to apt get running ?), how do i close "apt-get" so that the upgrade will continue?

Asked by Old_Lady

Being a Ubuntu newbie, the following message has got me stumped and appears when i try to upgrade to Gutsy Gibbon:

"Unable to get exclusive lock

This usually means that another package management application (like apt-get or aptitude) is already running. Please close that application first."

Do i need a Terminal entry to stop "apt-get", or is it something much simpler (like me)?

Cheers, Old_Lady

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Mikael Gerdin (mgerdin) said : 		#1

The error message is because another process has "locked" the package management system. To avoid strange behavior only one process is allowed to manage the package database at a time.
If you haven't ran apt-get or aptitude manually, this might have been caused by an automatic background update of the package lists.
Also please make sure that you are not running Synaptic, or Add/Remove or any other program that deals with adding and removing packages.
If this problem was caused by the automatic background update, all you need to do is wait a few minutes and try to run the Gutsy-upgrade again.

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Old_Lady (shaun-bradybunch) said : 		#2

Hi Mikael, thanks for your reply.

I think i may have ran apt-get manually when i followed some instructions for "sudo apt-get update" when I first started using Ubuntu.

If I click on synaptic manager i get the following error message:

An error occured

The following details are provided:

E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
E: _cache->open() failed, please report.

Still stumped! It's an obvious case of give a Newbie an Inch and he'll take a mile!

Cheers, Old_Lady

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Guillaume Tremblay Beaumont (guizzy) said : 		#3

The best way to clear that would be by following the instructions in that error report. Open a terminal window (in Applications), and type "sudo dpkg --configure -a". This will force the packaging manager to solve any issues it still has pending and should, so to say, clear the place to allow your upgrate to keep going.

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chiao woei (yongchiaowoei) said : 		#4

Hi. I also encountered the same problem and i resolved it by issuing "ps -e } grep update" and then i kill it. I hope you know how to kill a process. If not then let me know.

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chiao woei (yongchiaowoei) said : 		#5

Hi again. I also forgot to informed you that i recommend you do a fresh installation of ubuntu hardy and forget about upgrading cos i did that and everything went KAPUT. ( No offence, cos i really love ubuntu - very very very much more than window, that for sure ). I then download hardy and you know what, i wait like 9 hrs and then the download dissapeared, like as though KILL off ...u know. I am now back to my beloved ubuntu gutsy....very very stable.

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Karitza (freezeframe-99) said : 		#6

How do you kill a process?

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