I can't install new packages and can't update and upgrade

Question

I'm trying to install some program on Ubuntu, but when I try it I got the following 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?

Searching on the WEB, I applied this.-

sudo lsof /var/lib/dpkg/lock
sudo kill -TERM <PID>
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Apparently it works until the second line, but when I execute the third line the terminal doesn't answer (marks that it continues downloading a program that I tried previously to install. I left the PC works with this, one day, waiting for the end of this but nothing happened).

The previous program that I tried to install is Dropbox.

Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

Run the following:

fuser /var/lib/dpkg/lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
ls -l /var/lib/dpkg/lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock 

If there are processes running, and any of the 2 files exist, then run:

fuser -k /var/lib/dpkg/lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock

Then fuser will send a SIGKILL signal to each process. That should resolve the issue.

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If the above does not work for you, then you may want to take a look at this:

• Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/) is another process using it?

Answer 2

If you are using Ubuntu 16.0.4 above then type below command on terminal

 ps -A | grep apt

If you are using ubuntu version less than 16.0.4 then type below command,

 ps -A | grep apt-get

It will give you the currently running process id. If you kill that process then your problem will be solved.

For killing, process try out below command:

sudo kill -TERM  process_id

e.g : sudo kill -TERM 18846