package manager lock

[Guest]

Running 11.10 on Dell Inspiron E1505. Recently Apper failed to complete an update and froze, after forcing shutdown and rebooting system functions normally except for Apper. Following notification of updates Apper gives the following: 'waiting for package manager lock' followed by: 'Cannot get exclusive lock on packageing backend. Please close any other legacy packageing tools that may be open' (Details - 'run 'dpkg --configure -a')
There are no other package tools open that I can discover and attempting to run 'dpkg etc' says 'run not found do I mean crun,zrun, god-knows whatrun'.
Other than a clean re-install can anyone help me? I'm no expert!!

[arochester]

1) I guess you have an older version? You need sudo rights, so the full command is:
sudo dpkg --configure -a

2) Try using Konsole Terminal Program instead. Make sure that all Package Managers are closed! Issue the commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

3) Tip: You do not need to type commands into the Terminal. Highlight the command written on the web page. Move your cursor anywhere in the Terminal and press your mouse wheel or mouse middle button. Automatic Copy and paste! No spelling mistakes! No Typos! No other errors!

[Guest]

arochester, everything back to normal, I can't thank you enough. At my age getting my head around things is a challenge, you made it simple.