Updating Not Working

[JoHubb]

I installed KDE about a week ago. Now I need to update 131 packages!

When I try to install from the panel, I get a list of the 131 packages which are available. When I 'update all', nothing happens for a while, then:

Error messages flash up briefly, similar to 'E: could not get lock var/lib/...' and 'E: unable to lock the administration directory...'

howard@Snow-White:~$ apt-get -f install
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
[sudo] password for howard:
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?
howard@Snow-White:~$

AFAIK I am not root although I installed Samba for file sharing recently. From the terminal I am not on # but $.
I started off trying to run Rhythmbox but got an error similar to: GStreamer required for this installation. As is the way with Linux, I ended up trying to solve a seemingly different problem

I'd be grateful for any advice. Thanks!

[oldgeek]

I got the same thing this morning when trying to update Kubuntu 18.04. It seems that Discover wants to do the updating, so when I used that program it went OK.

[JoHubb]

Thanks, but it is just the same with Discover (18.04).

[GreyGeek]

Open a Konsole and issue
sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

[JoHubb]

Thanks a lot!

I ran into trouble at: sudo apt full-upgrade.

howard@Snow-White:~$
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock
[sudo] password for howard:
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo apt update
Get:1 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-security InRelease [83.2 kB]
Hit:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net/eugenesan/ppa/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:3 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic InRelease
Hit:4 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates InRelease
Get:5 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports InRelease [74.6 kB]
Fetched 158 kB in 1s (236 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
133 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
howard@Snow-White:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
E: Could not get lock /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/cache/apt/archives/
howard@Snow-White:~$

I checked with the File Manager and I can open Root. I don't know exactly how I became root as I am pretty sure I have a separate root password which I did not use. I did install Samba recently and there is a red square top left in the File Manager page.

[GreyGeek]

Let's go one level deeper then:
sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt -f install
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

[JoHubb]

Hmm...not so good. I didn't copy the entire output - pages of it. This is the last section:

Fetched 133 MB in 13s (10.1 MB/s)
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable.
(Reading database ... 224174 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb (--unpack):
new ttf-mscorefonts-installer package pre-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Preparing to unpack .../python3-minimal_3.6.5-3ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking python3-minimal (3.6.5-3ubuntu1) over (3.6.5-3) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
howard@Snow-White:~$

Discover still tells me there are 132 files to update.

[GreyGeek]

IIRC, the ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb package opens a console based red, gray and blue GUI that requires you to check "Yes" for M$'s EULA. On my system it popped UNDER the Muon gui and only by luck did I see it. It should have popped on top of other GUI in modal fashion, not modless.

At this point you can repeat these two commands several times
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt -f install

or you can delete:
/var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb

then repeat those commands several times.

A more serious approach would be to delete all the files in
/var/cache/apt/archives/
and then do
sudo apt update
to rebuild it from the sources.

[JoHubb]

It's late with me and I will think more clearly in the morning. Thanks for your help and interest, GreyGeek. I will post here again tomorrow.

[JoHubb]

At this point you can repeat these two commands several times
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt -f install

or you can delete:
/var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb
then repeat those commands several times.

The Konsole reported permission denied when I tried to delete the /var/cache/apt/archives/ttf-mscorefonts-installer_3.6ubuntu2_all.deb file. Oddly enough, when I checked the /var directory it had disappeared.

I then ran the top two commands. These seemed to run their routines normally, but at the end Discover said I still had 129 packages to update. I do not know if these were additional to the original 131, but they installed correctly with Discover.

Thanks again!

[GreyGeek]

Updating Not Working

Glad to help!

I’m not a fan of Discover. On my system it seems slow to update my repository status and many times the update icon stays in the system tray after it’s done, telling me I have updates.

When I see the update icon I always open a Konsole and issue
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

If, in the list of updates waiting to come down, I see anything relating to kernels, printers, networking or GPUs I choose “n” to abort the update process, switch to root using “sudo -i”, and then I create snapshots of my @ and @home subvolumes. Then I exit root and redo the “sudo apt full-upgrade”, using the up arrow to find that command, then hitting the Enter key. If something breaks and a quick analysis indicates the fix may be involved I do a rollback and wait for future updates to fix things.
99% of the time, however, the update is golden.