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JPvRiel/deb_apt_dpkg_locked.md

Created February 16, 2017 10:37
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Troubleshoot "Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock" errors when trying to update or install debian packages
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deb_apt_dpkg_locked.md

Troubleshoot "Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock" errors when trying to update or install debian packages

Error Message

E: 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?

Troubleshoot

Find out if a process has locked the file

$ sudo lsof /var/lib/dpkg/lock
COMMAND  PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF   NODE NAME
aptd    4667 root    8uW  REG  252,3        0 131210 /var/lib/dpkg/lock

Anothe less precise way is to look for a likely process still running

$ ps -e | grep -E '(apt)|(dpkg)'
 4667 ?        00:00:01 aptd

Get details on the process

$ sudo ps -p 4667 -f 
UID        PID  PPID  C STIME TTY          TIME CMD
root      4667     1  0 12:12 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/sbin/aptd

aptd

Find out more about this package

$ apt-file search /usr/sbin/aptd
aptdaemon: /usr/sbin/aptd

The aptdeamon package allows non-root users to check for and apply package updates, so it's often likely an open or crashed package manager/update tool could have triggered aptdaemon to lock the file.

TODO: look for graceful ways to stop or restart aptdaemon, and find out what its busy doing...

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