Unable to lock directories /var/cache/apt/archives

Astrowind

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 28, 2018
Messages
116
What's going on? I can't install Opera in Linux Mint because I first have to install sudo apt install msttcorefonts. That can't install because of the error message.

EDIT: Uh, actually now it says: "Waiting for apt to exit".
 
Last edited:
OK, actually for whatever reason I re-installed Linux Mint and all of a sudden I was able to install Opera. Anyway, I'm going to do another thread on an odd message I got.
 
why did you re-install?
that message means there is another instance of apt running (probably some background check for updates) and has the directory lock to ensure ONLY one instance can modify the package database (crude, simple but effective mechanism to provide atomic access to a filestructure that serves as a db)

a ps aux | grep -u [a]pt should show you which apt process has the lock. If that fails an lsof | grep -i .... on the db path in /var would show the process. You can then choose to wait for it to finish or kill it.
 
Thanks for the help but I re-installed because I did something somehow that caused the computer to go to sleep instead of a complete shut down. This resulted in losing the dual-boot and couldn't get back into Windows.
 
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