I’m still a fairly new Linux-user (on Tuxedo OS), and I just ran into an issue that is new to me. If I try to update my system, either via command line or Discover, the apt update command fails. This is the output:
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock. It is held by process 1635 (apt-get)
N: Be aware that removing the lock file is not a solution and may break your system.
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
Process 1635 is apt-get update run by root, and persists through restart. I am tempted to try to kill it (kill 1635), but I’m not sure if anything could break from that, so I thought I’d try to ask for help first before I do something stupid.
killing the apt update shouldn’t break anything since its not installing any packages it’s just updating your repos. i would have just killed the pid 1635…also not sure if it would break something but i doubt it…did you dmesg to see what else info you might be able to find out?
Would there not be a risk of corrupting some of the repo files and dependencies lists by just killing it?
I have checked dmesg after your suggestion, but I did not see anything that tipped me off to what might be wrong. Is there anything in particular I should be looking for?