How to fix lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable) Error
Posted by admin on March 30th, 2007 
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Error
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?
Solution
First thing you need to check Synaptic Package Manager open at the same time
or
That happens when synaptic or another package update / installation application is already running. Close any other package managers (including Add/Remove application, language pack installer, etc.) and retry.
March 30th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
I’ve actually found that recently my apt-get isn’t closing cleanly either, so that it keeps running even if I close the terminal window. A quick “sudo killall apt-get” fixes that, although I’m guessing that this isn’t most proper way of doing things.
April 9th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
I’m unable to find anything running, system monitor says everything is sleeping. I even ran sudo killall for apt-get and synaptic and it says “apt-get: no process killed” etc. In the mean time I can’t update my 7.04 alpha system, it says run “dpkg –configure -a”. I ran it but don’t know what to do when it opens. var/lib/dpkg/lock with white X in brown box in the upper right corner, 0 bytes. Help me Ubuntu Geek, your my only hope.
Newbie
April 9th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
bob
could you please provide the exact error message and what you are trying to do
July 2nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Thanks!!!!!!!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 5:13 am
hahaha, i had synaptic open, i’m such an idiot, thank you
May 31st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
June 18th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
If we remove the lock file, Is there any influence of the system?
July 11th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Thanks Q !!!!
August 16th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
thanks!
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:18 am
diane@dianes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install amarok-kde4
[sudo] password for diane:
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?
diane@dianes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install amarok-kde4
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
amarok-kde4: Depends: kdebase-runtime (>= 4:4.1.2) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: kdelibs5 (>= 4:4.1.3) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.8~20080505) but 2.7-10ubuntu4 is to be installed
Depends: libgcrypt11 (>= 1.4.0) but 1.2.4-2ubuntu7 is to be installed
Depends: libmtp8 but it is not installable
Depends: libphonon4 (> 4:4.2.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libqt4-dbus (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-network (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-opengl (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-script (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-sql (>= 4.4.3) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libqt4-svg (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-webkit (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-xml (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqtcore4 (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqtgui4 (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libstreamanalyzer0 (>= 0.5.11) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libstreams0 (>= 0.5.11) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libtag1c2a (>= 1.5) but 1.4-8ubuntu1 is to be installed
Depends: phonon (> 4:4.2.0) but it is not installable
E: Broken packages
diane@dianes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get install amarok-kde4
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
amarok-kde4: Depends: kdebase-runtime (>= 4:4.1.2) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: kdelibs5 (>= 4:4.1.3) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.8~20080505) but 2.7-10ubuntu4 is to be installed
Depends: libgcrypt11 (>= 1.4.0) but 1.2.4-2ubuntu7 is to be installed
Depends: libmtp8 but it is not installable
Depends: libphonon4 (> 4:4.2.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libqt4-dbus (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-network (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-opengl (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-script (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-sql (>= 4.4.3) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libqt4-svg (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-webkit (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqt4-xml (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqtcore4 (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libqtgui4 (>= 4.4.3) but it is not installable
Depends: libstreamanalyzer0 (>= 0.5.11) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libstreams0 (>= 0.5.11) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libtag1c2a (>= 1.5) but 1.4-8ubuntu1 is to be installed
Depends: phonon (> 4:4.2.0) but it is not installable
E: Broken packages
diane@dianes-desktop:~$
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:19 am
diane@dianes-desktop:~$ rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
rm: remove write-protected regular empty file `/var/lib/dpkg/lock’? y
rm: cannot remove `/var/lib/dpkg/lock’: Permission denied
diane@dianes-desktop:~$
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:37 am
@Chroniclogic
Try to restart you pc and check if not run the following command
sudo apt-get -f install
January 3rd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Here were the results of the
sudo apt-get -f install
diane@dianes-desktop:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree… 0%
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
texlive-base texlive texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-common mysql-common
libfftw3-3 tofrodos texlive-base-bin libmysqlclient15off ruby1.8 tetex-bin
tidy libtidy-0.99-0 ruby libtunepimp5 libifp4 texlive-latex-recommended
texlive-latex-base libpq5 libruby1.8 texlive-doc-base tex-common libnjb5
libofa0
Use ‘apt-get autoremove’ to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
diane@dianes-desktop:~$
Then I attempted the sudo apt-get install amarok-kde4
And received the same error,
Thanks for your response!
I really think that Amarok will be awesome once its installed and working properly!