Problems with Adept manager

[decatur-linux]

I have been trying to install VMware player for some time and have finally gotten the Adept database locked up and set to read-only. The error message that I receive says that another application is using the database and that I should stop that application before I can use Adept.

Here is what happened prior to this situation:
1. I modified my repository list so that I could access and download VMplayer.
2. I went into Adept and selected VMware player to install.
3. I selected "preview changes" and saw that there were about 7 or 8 additional packages that it had to install, which was OK with me.
4. I selected "apply changes" and it started to install the packages.
5. I don't recall, but something told me that the installation was hung up about 37% into the process, and I closed Adept.
6. I tried again, and got the error message above.
7. I executed "ps -A" and did a "kill -9" on the processes that I suspected were causing the database to be locked, but it still did not clear up the problem.
8. I rebooted the system, with the same result.
9. I shut down the system, then restarted it, with the same result

Here are the processes that I have running now, with Adept running and the database in read-only mode--

PID TTY TIME CMD
1 ? 00:00:01 init
2 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
3 ? 00:00:00 watchdog/0
4 ? 00:00:00 events/0
5 ? 00:00:00 khelper
6 ? 00:00:00 kthread
8 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0
9 ? 00:00:00 kacpid
128 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
129 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
131 ? 00:00:00 aio/0
130 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0
718 ? 00:00:00 kseriod
1816 ? 00:00:00 khubd
1919 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
2145 ? 00:00:00 udevd
2996 ? 00:00:00 shpchpd_event
3723 ? 00:00:00 acpid
3816 ? 00:00:00 syslogd
3842 ? 00:00:00 dd
3844 ? 00:00:00 klogd
3869 ? 00:00:00 hpiod
3872 ? 00:00:00 python
3919 ? 00:00:00 cupsd
3944 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
3959 ? 00:00:00 hald
3960 ? 00:00:00 hald-runner
3965 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi
4015 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
4026 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-stor
4027 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-stor
4113 ? 00:00:00 hcid
4119 ? 00:00:00 sdpd
4127 ? 00:00:00 krfcommd
4141 ? 00:00:00 mdadm
4175 ? 00:00:00 atd
4188 ? 00:00:00 cron
4215 ? 00:00:00 apache2
4216 ? 00:00:00 apache2
4217 ? 00:00:00 apache2
4219 ? 00:00:00 apache2
4613 ? 00:00:00 kdm
4651 tty7 00:00:27 Xorg
4666 tty1 00:00:00 getty
4667 tty2 00:00:00 getty
4668 tty3 00:00:00 getty
4669 tty4 00:00:00 getty
4670 tty5 00:00:00 getty
4671 tty6 00:00:00 getty
4686 ? 00:00:00 kdm
4695 ? 00:00:00 x-session-manag
4731 ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent
4734 ? 00:00:00 dbus-launch
4735 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
4763 ? 00:00:00 kdeinit
4766 ? 00:00:00 dcopserver
4768 ? 00:00:00 klauncher
4770 ? 00:00:00 kded
4772 ? 00:00:00 gam_server
4781 ? 00:00:00 artsd
4784 ? 00:00:00 kaccess
4785 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper
4787 ? 00:00:00 ksmserver
4791 ? 00:00:00 kwin
4795 ? 00:00:00 kdesktop
4797 ? 00:00:02 kicker
4800 ? 00:00:00 klipper
4802 ? 00:00:00 kbluetoothd
4804 ? 00:00:04 adept_notifier
4808 ? 00:00:00 kio_uiserver
4819 ? 00:00:00 kmix
4820 ? 00:00:00 katapult
4822 ? 00:00:00 knotes
4824 ? 00:00:00 knotify
4828 ? 00:00:00 kdesud
4858 ? 00:00:00 kio_file
4868 ? 00:00:13 firefox-bin
4892 ? 00:00:06 adept
4894 ? 00:00:00 kdeinit
4897 ? 00:00:00 dcopserver
4899 ? 00:00:00 klauncher
4901 ? 00:00:00 kded
4903 ? 00:00:00 gam_server
4917 ? 00:00:00 konsole
4918 pts/1 00:00:00 bash
4935 pts/1 00:00:00 ps

When I stop Adept and run "ps -A" again, the following processes are NO LONGER running--
4892 adept
4894 kdeinit
4899 klauncher
4901 kded
and there are NO ADDITIONAL processes running.

Help! How do I unlock the Adept database? What file IS the Adept database?

TIA.

[decatur-linux]

Re: Problems with Adept manager

After doing some additional research I think I found the command to use--

sudo dpkg --configure -a

It cleared up the database lockup.

But someone else said that Adept was a "mistake" and that I should be using Synaptic [which I have installed, but I have continued to use Adept because I am more familiar with it].

Any feelings about Adept vs Synaptic?

Any suggestions about installing VMware player?

[someguyouknow]

Re: Problems with Adept manager

They say synaptic is better for newer users because i think it lists dependecies. Adept is slightly buggy from what i hear but i still use it. I use Konsole with aptitude most though.