Root / Super User access on DebianKDE

[Zexston]

Hi,

After a week of working with Debian, I decided to install the KDE3 version straight from an NetInstall CD. This fixed some issues for me as well as made networking and folder sharring a snap! But now its time to add all the extra packages I need.

Here's the problem: Using any kind of Package Manager yields the same results:

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (var/lib/dpkg/), in another process using it?
RESULT=100

I've tried apt-get from root command line and the KPackage Manager that comes with KDE3 with same results. I have only one user that was created during Debian install.

I'm having some other problems, from what I've seen on the net, they all seem to point to not having proper Super User access (I'm guessing here).

Question(s):

What could cause this error?

AND/OR

How do I make sure I have top level access to the configure the system? (I tried logging in as "root", but the login errored out saying that this was not allowed)

Thank you in advance!

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

You can go to a terminal and use the su command to gain root permissions for carrying out admin tasks:

su

or...

su -

Find more on using the command line under Linux here:

LinuxCommand.org: Learn the Linux command line. Write shell scripts.

[Zexston]

Thanks for the welcome and the quick response,

but here is what I get when i run the KDE Package Manager in a regulare shell (Konsole):

randy@DebianKDE:~$ su - root kpackage
Password:
/usr/bin/kpackage: /usr/bin/kpackage: cannot execute binary file
randy@DebianKDE:~$

This is under a Root Shell:

DebianKDE:~# su - root kpackage
/usr/bin/kpackage: /usr/bin/kpackage: cannot execute binary file
DebianKDE:~# kpackage
kpackage: cannot connect to X server

I don't know abou the first error, but the second about the X server - I did some research and verified that it is running just fine.

Any other suggestions?

[oz]

Debian uses APT as it's default package tool, so I'd recommend using it for package installation over Kpackage. You should be able to su for root permissions as a regular user, then issue the apt command to install the package(s) of your choice:

apt-get install package_name

You'll need to sync your machine with the packages available in the Debian repos before installing any packages:

apt-get update

Check the APT HowTo for more on using APT.

[bigtomrodney]

Thanks for the welcome and the quick response,

but here is what I get when i run the KDE Package Manager in a regulare shell (Konsole):

randy@DebianKDE:~$ su - root kpackage
Password:
/usr/bin/kpackage: /usr/bin/kpackage: cannot execute binary file
randy@DebianKDE:~$

This is under a Root Shell:

DebianKDE:~# su - root kpackage
/usr/bin/kpackage: /usr/bin/kpackage: cannot execute binary file
DebianKDE:~# kpackage
kpackage: cannot connect to X server

I don't know abou the first error, but the second about the X server - I did some research and verified that it is running just fine.

Any other suggestions?

The su command is invoked on its own to switch you to root. It is not a prefix to a command, but sudo acts in this manner. By default Debian does not enable/configure sudo.

You mentioned that you are running a root shell - if this is the case you don't need to use su or sudo. You can use the apt-get command directly. If you do at any point want to run a graphical program as root you should use kdesu or gksu to make sure that everything goes smoothly.

kdesu kpackage

[Zexston]

Tried using apt-get before, but got same 2 errors in shell that the KPackage window gave me.

I never tried the update though, but I get the same error:

DebianKDE:~# apt-get update
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org squeeze Release.gpg [197B]
Ign http://ftp.us.debian.org squeeze/main Translation-en_US
Get:2 http://ftp.us.debian.org squeeze Release [71.6kB]
.
.
.
Get:29 http://ftp.us.debian.org squeeze/main 2009-03-16-1423.33.pdiff [1434B]
Get:30 http://ftp.us.debian.org squeeze/main 2009-03-16-1423.33.pdiff [1434B]
Fetched 161kB in 30s (5319B/s)
E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11 Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

I'm assumming I don't have su because I so a post that said the above error was because no su access. Maybe it is something else, I don't know?

[jledhead]

how about

ps aux |grep dpkg

and see if something is using it.

[Zexston]

Thanks for the kdesu command, but got the same errors

Also, just tried the ps aux |grep dpkg command and got this:

randy@DebianKDE:~$ ps aux |grep dpkg
randy     5436  0.0  0.1   3180   716 pts/0    S+   04:15   0:00 grep dpkg

Don't know what this means, but I'll look it up,

I did just find this: here on another forum after doing another search on the first error.

It turns out I do have an apt-get process running, but I can't kill it with KDE System Gaurd because it complains (like every other program) that I don't have rights.

There has to be a way to log in from the beginning with super user access. I am the only one that uses this virtual machine (at home on mac) and there is only one user - the one I created during DebianKDE install.

Thanks for the fast hlep guys!

[oz]

Try running the following commands with root permissions:

apt-get -f install
dpkg --configure -a

... then start over and run the update and install commands that were posted earlier in this thread.

If that doesn't work, I'm out of answers and can't test anything because I'm not running Debian at the moment.