Using Kubuntu 7.10 I had recently noticed that I stopped getting notifications for software updates, so I attempted to bring up the Adept Package Manager.

Put in the correct password, Adept begins to do its thing then a warning window pops up, stating: "Another process is using the packaging system database" The ask if I want to try to resolve. If you choose "yes" it crashes. Anyone have any ideas?

How can check to see if the all the processes are working correctly? I have reboot mulitple times... message never changes.



I put this in as a bug at Launchpad.net -- Bug# 176206

The backtrace:
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Using host libthread_db library "/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libthread_db.so.1".
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[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread -1235933504 (LWP 5652)]
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[KCrash handler]
#6 0xffffe410 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#7 0xb65ad875 in raise () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#8 0xb65af201 in abort () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#9 0xb67b96e0 in __gnu_cxx::__verbose_terminate_handler ()
from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#10 0xb67b6f65 in ?? () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#11 0xb67b6fa2 in std::terminate () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#12 0xb67b70ca in __cxa_throw () from /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6
#13 0x0812b916 in ?? ()
#14 0x0812be8a in ?? ()
#15 0x0812bee8 in ?? ()
#16 0x0812c735 in ?? ()
#17 0x0812a22d in ?? ()
#18 0x08114379 in ?? ()
#19 0x080951ed in ?? ()
#20 0x0807378d in ?? ()
#21 0x0807408e in ?? ()
#22 0xb6dfd893 in QObject::activate_signal () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#23 0xb71898ec in QSignal::signal () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#24 0xb6e1d842 in QSignal::activate () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#25 0xb6e25258 in QSingleShotTimer::event () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#26 0xb6d94af0 in QApplication::internalNotify () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#27 0xb6d9691f in QApplication::notify () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#28 0xb755aca2 in KApplication::notify () from /usr/lib/libkdecore.so.4
#29 0xb6d27209 in QApplication::sendEvent () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#30 0xb6d8753b in QEventLoop::activateTimers () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#31 0xb6d3bd49 in QEventLoop:rocessEvents () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#32 0xb6daf1ce in QEventLoop::enterLoop () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#33 0xb6daefde in QEventLoop::exec () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#34 0xb6d96699 in QApplication::exec () from /usr/lib/libqt-mt.so.3
#35 0x0806f75e in ?? ()
#36 0xb6599050 in __libc_start_main () from /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
#37 0x0806f401 in ?? ()

Have you tried opening a terminal and typing sudo dpkg --configure -a
and then trying adept again?

run a
ps -A
and check for any processes like, dpkg adept, synaptic etc......

kill any dead ones and try again...

this often happens to me if adept crashes and kills the window but leaves the process in a zombie state.

killing it allways solves the problem

Hmm, well its not a bug, or at least not the one that you think it is.

Firstly, you have to understand how this all works. There is a system-wide database of packages. This can be used by any program charged with updating and maintaining packages (adept, synaptic, kpackage, and others) and you could have an arbitrary number of these programs running on your system. they can't, however, be allowed truly simultaneous access (but can be allowed sequential access) as they would have to keep re-reading the database (and that's slow) to ensure that another program hadn't just changed it.

So this problem is solved by use of a lock file. When a program opens the database it writes a lock file (technically it could only do this for write, although some will be more conservative and write the lock file for read), which in effect, says "hands off, I'm modifying this".

At this point, your error message comes in, and that is saying "you are asking me to open the system database, but someone already has it open for write...I can't let you do that, Dave".

Now there are two possibilities; either there is another program with the database open, say something that looks for updates continually, or there has been a crash (system crash and/or program crash and that includes the power going off without the correct shutdown sequence) that means a program has asserted a lock file but has exited unexpectedly without clearing it up afterwards (probably the more likely).

So, I think that there is a worthwhile complaint that the error message is not very explanatory, but this is more of a feature request than a bug, per se. The trouble is, if they just said it is this filename that is the problem, people would just delete it whichever of the two problems that was the underlying cause. What you really need to do is check whether there are other programs that have a legitimate write to be holding the system database (see earlier posts!) and, if not, delete the lock file.

Tredegar your directions seems to have done the trick. Thanks much.