Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/)



  
  
  
  

   
   
   
   
 
    
 
     
 
      
 
       41 down vote 
       accepted 
      
 
     
 
      
 
       
WARNING: This answer is applicable to Ubuntu version < 11.04, do not use it in a newer version as it will hard freeze your system
 
       
As per the other answers there is a package management app holding the lock.When unsure do not manually remove the lock, first run:
 
       
sudo fuser -cuk /var/lib/dpkg/lock; sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock
 
       
This will kill any processes opening the file before removing it.
 
      
 
    
 
   
  
  
  
  




  
  
  
  

   
   
   
   
 
    
 
     
 
      
 
       24 down vote 
      
 
     
 
      
 
       
You can delete the lock file with
 
       
sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
 
       
you may also need to delete the lock file in the cache directory
 
       
sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
 
       
after that try open synaptic again