Ubuntu
etckeeper package

Unable to obtain lock file:///etc/ held by root

Bug #1022386 reported by martin suchanek

This bug report was converted into a question: question #202609: Unable to obtain lock file:///etc/ held by root.

6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
etckeeper (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hi,

When I tried to run:
etckeeper init
I have got error:

Unable to obtain lock file:///etc/ held by root <email address hidden> on PCEUBU1 (process #31748), acquired 169 hours, 41 minutes ago.
Will continue to try until 22:28:01, unless you press Ctrl-C.
See "bzr help break-lock" for more.
bzr: ERROR: Could not acquire lock "(local)": file:///etc/
etckeeper warning: bzr add failed

this error appeared even if I am doing apt-get upgrade.

apt-cache policy etckeeper
etckeeper:
  Installed: 0.61ubuntu2
  Candidate: 0.61ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 0.61ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04

Regards,
Martin.

Revision history for this message
Jelmer Vernooij (jelmer) wrote :

Something killed bzr earlier, and there is still an open lock for it.

You might want to run "sudo bzr break-lock /etc".

Changed in etckeeper (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Revision history for this message
jezzman (jeremyproctor32) wrote :

You might want to run "sudo bzr break-lock /etc".

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This line worked 100% for me, after surfing the net for ages, finding a whole bunch of crud about killing processes and looking for files, uninstalling etckeeper. this single line got me back to "apt-get install" and seems to have fixed my package problems.

I had a package error with virtualbox dpkg. This seems to have locked me out of my Ubuntu 10.0.4 package upgrades and updating. my /etc directory was locked for approx. 1500 hours - thats like 50 days! It may well have been another package, I don't know. All I know for sure is that bzr was playing up, acting bizaare and I couldn't install ANYTHING since my /etc was locked. It's simple now, if you think about it. Son't worry too much about downloading installing stuff, you just need to unlock your /etc directory. Look at the error messages and really try to get a feel of the problem, I knew my system was LOCKED in some way.

Anyway, now it's unlocked, I'll post back if there's any problems, it seems to have installed my ruby gems and git nicely.

Many Thanks!
Jeremy.

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