urpmi database locked

[dancingbear909]

What does this error mean?

I keep getting this error every time I try to update my system.

[Manchunian]

This sometimes happens on Mandriva. These commands (you must be root) will usually get you up and running again:

rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.LOCK"

Then

rm -f "/var/lib/urpmi/.RPMLOCK"

Here is a ressource that might help. However, I have to say that when I was using MAndriva, even after following these instructions, URPMI would still lock from time to time. It's one of the reasons I stopped using it, in fact.

[fingal]

Manchunian's solution will work, but you shouldn't have persistant problems with urpmi locking. It usually means that you've previously tried to install some software. Then - for whatever reason - the download has failed leaving urpmi in limbo.

It may point to problems with your setup rather than to a bug in the package management system which - in current versions - is very good.

Sometimes it's better to use urpmi from a command line, because that way if things go wrong you get more feedback. To be honest urpmi is great when it's working well, but when something is wrong it can be hard to pin down the fault.

[Manchunian]

Yes, this issue can arise with any distribution. In Debian (and Debian derivatives) you do dpkg --configure -a to get everything working again. However, I did find this happened far too frequently in Mandriva - perhaps because that was because I was using the Mandriva Control Center. Note that, whereas I was getting this issue very frequently in Mandriva, I can only remember it happening once in Debian - and that was because I accidently interrupted apt from installing some software.

[fingal]

However, I did find this happened far too frequently in Mandriva - perhaps because that was because I was using the Mandriva Control Center.

I had the same trouble for a long time, and looking back it's hard to pin down how I solved it because the error messages I got weren't all that helpful.

In the end it was because Mandriva was - by default - configured to use the ipv6 protocol, but this is still unsupported by my ISP. This is a recurring theme in posts to the Mandriva Forum, and strangely not one that seems to be discussed openly... Linux has a few dirty little secrets when it comes to configuring networks.. Shhhhh.