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Dimitris7
Asked: 2012-05-15 07:55:31 +0800 CST

"debconf: DbDriver "config": config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable" while installing packages

  • 772

I'm trying to install the flashybrid but when I enter the apt-get install flashybrid command, I get this error:

root@user-desktop:/home/user# apt-get install flashybrid
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
flashybrid is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0B of additional disk space will be used.
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
Setting up flashybrid (0.15+nmu2) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing flashybrid (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
flashybrid
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I also tried this one to find what is already using that file:

root@user-desktop:/home/user# lsof | grep /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
lsof: WARNING: can't stat() fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon file system /home/user/.gvfs
Output information may be incomplete.
dpkg-prec 4672 root 4rW REG 8,6 39658 1697827 /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

But I don't know how to fix this.

apt debconf

6 Answers

  1. A solution to this locking problem is detailed in the wiki:

    sudo fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

    Will show you what process is holding the lock:

                         USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
/var/cache/debconf/config.dat:
                     root      18210 F.... dpkg-preconfigu

    Then you simply need to note down the PID and kill it like so:

    sudo kill PID
sudo kill -9 PID  # if the first doesn't work
    • 268

  2. This is more simple one command

    I just did:

    sudo rm /var/cache/debconf/*.dat

    After I run the apt-get install and (I was installing curl ) and it worked restored the db manual pages.

    PS: I removed something with apt-get and I did have this problem. but solved it simply thank also to @rajagenupula

    • 124
    1. open your terminal
    2. open the location /var/cache/debconf with gksu nautilus
    3. move (cut/paste) all of the .dat files to another backup directory.
    4. attempt to run again (will likely get a different error)
    5. restore those dat files from the aforementioned backup directory.
    6. Then try again what you were doing (should work this time).
    • 17 
  4. sudo fuser -vik /var/cache/debconf/config.dat

    Will display the process and ask if you want to terminate it.

    • 14

  5. There is a process still running blocking debconf. You should wait until it finish. Or find out how it got stuck, since in some cases it will be try to ask you a question but since you don't have a scope to see it. If you wait sometime and things doesn't change you may need to reboot the system, or terminate the process.

    sudo kill 4672

    or

    sudo killall dpkg-prec

    This will assure you that your database will not get damaged and will prevent further problems.

    • 0

  6. If you are getting this error in an unattended script, make sure you don't accidentally have two consecutive apt-get upgrade or apt-get dist-upgrade commands running, otherwise the second command can fail to obtain the lock and thus end up in this error.

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