While running sudo apt-get install alien, there is an error: Unable lock administrator directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?
How do I fix this?
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It could be that some other package or package update is already downloading, and it hasn't finished downloading yet, so the /var/lib/dpkg/ directory is locked until it finishes. Try to install alien again in a couple of hours.
karel
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karel's answer should be correct in nearly every case... however, there are some cases where dpkg forgets to clean its lock after its done (it happened to me a couple of times), so then you have to remove it:
sudo rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock
But don't remove it unless you are certain dpkg isn't running:
ps -eo command | grep dpkg | grep -v 'grep' # If there is output, then it means
# dpkg is running
