Total noobie needs help on how to find and kill processes!

[kohuke]

Hello.
I searched and read another tread like that, but that wasn't very helpful.
I just instelled Kubuntu's latest version and run the adept manager to get udates, but i got somekind of an error and now when i open the adept manager again i get a message saying that:

You will not be able to change your system settings in any way (install, remove or upgrade software), because another process is using the packaging system database (probably some other Adept application or apt-get or aptitude). Please close the other application before using this one.

I used top command on the terminal to view all the processes, but didn't find any named like that. Can anyone help?

Thank you to who ever decides to help me

[tpl]

welcome to the forum

top doesn't list all running processes, what you want is "ps"

sudo ps -A
sudo ps -A |grep apt*

when you find the offender, look for the process number
on the left side: wxyz

sudo kill -9 wxyz

or by name "offender" try this

sudo pkill offender

[kohuke]

Thanks, i tried all what you have suggested, but i didn't find anything that might relate to add/remove programs or apt or adept.
this is what i saw:
sudo ps -A
PID TTY TIME CMD
1 ? 00:00:01 init
2 ? 00:00:00 migration/0
3 ? 00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
4 ? 00:00:00 watchdog/0
5 ? 00:00:00 events/0
6 ? 00:00:00 khelper
7 ? 00:00:00 kthread
30 ? 00:00:00 kblockd/0
31 ? 00:00:00 kacpid
32 ? 00:00:00 kacpi_notify
151 ? 00:00:00 kseriod
172 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
173 ? 00:00:00 pdflush
174 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0
175 ? 00:00:00 aio/0
1985 ? 00:00:00 ksuspend_usbd
1986 ? 00:00:00 khubd
2019 ? 00:00:00 ata/0
2020 ? 00:00:00 ata_aux
2027 ? 00:00:00 khpsbpkt
2156 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_0
2157 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_1
2193 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_2
2194 ? 00:00:00 scsi_eh_3
2216 ? 00:00:00 knodemgrd_0
2380 ? 00:00:00 kjournald
2579 ? 00:00:00 udevd
3459 ? 00:00:00 kpsmoused
3505 ? 00:00:00 pccardd
3583 ? 00:00:00 ipw2200/0
3725 ? 00:00:00 hda_codec
4394 tty4 00:00:00 getty
4395 tty5 00:00:00 getty
4398 tty2 00:00:00 getty
4399 tty3 00:00:00 getty
4400 tty1 00:00:00 getty
4401 tty6 00:00:00 getty
4670 ? 00:00:00 acpid
4764 ? 00:00:00 syslogd
4818 ? 00:00:00 dd
4820 ? 00:00:00 klogd
4841 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
4857 ? 00:00:02 hald
4858 ? 00:00:00 hald-runner
4864 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-acpi
4865 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-cpuf
4872 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
4875 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
4892 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
4897 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-keyb
4911 ? 00:00:00 hald-addon-stor
4924 ? 00:00:00 dhcdbd
4939 ? 00:00:00 NetworkManager
4956 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
4957 ? 00:00:00 avahi-daemon
4971 ? 00:00:00 NetworkManagerD
5013 ? 00:00:00 cupsd
5058 ? 00:00:00 hpiod
5061 ? 00:00:00 python
5130 ? 00:00:00 kondemand/0
5170 ? 00:00:00 hcid
5178 ? 00:00:00 dhclient
5193 ? 00:00:00 krfcommd
5229 ? 00:00:00 atd
5243 ? 00:00:00 cron
5304 ? 00:00:00 kdm
5323 tty7 00:00:07 Xorg
5338 ? 00:00:00 kdm
5422 ? 00:00:00 x-session-manag
5461 ? 00:00:00 ssh-agent
5464 ? 00:00:00 dbus-launch
5465 ? 00:00:00 dbus-daemon
5500 ? 00:00:00 start_kdeinit
5501 ? 00:00:00 kdeinit
5504 ? 00:00:00 dcopserver
5507 ? 00:00:00 klauncher
5509 ? 00:00:00 kded
5514 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper
5516 ? 00:00:00 ksmserver
5517 ? 00:00:00 kwin
5519 ? 00:00:00 kdesktop
5521 ? 00:00:02 kicker
5522 ? 00:00:00 kio_file
5525 ? 00:00:00 kio_uiserver
5541 ? 00:00:00 artsd
5543 ? 00:00:00 kaccess
5547 ? 00:00:00 kmix
5548 ? 00:00:00 katapult
5556 ? 00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
5557 ? 00:00:00 avahi-autoipd
5558 ? 00:00:00 kopete
5562 ? 00:00:00 aspell
5564 ? 00:00:03 konqueror
5565 ? 00:00:00 konqueror
5567 ? 00:00:00 konqueror
5568 ? 00:00:01 guidance-power-
5571 ? 00:00:00 knotify
5572 ? 00:00:00 knetworkmanager
5574 ? 00:00:00 klipper
5576 ? 00:00:00 kbluetoothd
5578 ? 00:00:00 passkey-agent
5590 ? 00:00:00 dhclient3
5611 ? 00:00:00 konsole
5612 pts/1 00:00:00 bash
5628 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5632 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5633 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5634 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5635 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5636 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5643 ? 00:00:00 kio_http
5649 ? 00:00:00 kdesud
5690 ? 00:00:00 artsd
5726 ? 00:00:00 kdeinit
5729 ? 00:00:00 dcopserver
5732 ? 00:00:00 klauncher
5734 ? 00:00:00 kded
5744 ? 00:00:00 knotify
5751 pts/1 00:00:00 ps

and
sudo ps -A |grep apt*
174 ? 00:00:00 kswapd0
5514 ? 00:00:00 kwrapper
5548 ? 00:00:00 katapult

If the offender is really there i really cannot find it and if i'd started to kill all the process then that would be chaos.
Any other ideas or is any the programs listed above the offender that i need to kill?

[devils casper]

There isn't any updater or package manager listed in above list.
Execute this

sudo apt-get update

Post exact error message here, if any.

[kohuke]

This is the error which i got after excecuting the sudo apt-get update command:

Fetched 3B in 0s (8B/s)
E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.

I solved the proble by running the command 'dpkg --configure -a' and it basically did this:
dpkg: requested operation requires superuser privilege
kohuke@lpfusion:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up java-common (0.25ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libdjvulibre15 (3.5.17-3ubuntu2) ...

Setting up shared-mime-info (0.20-0ubuntu4) ...

Setting up gnome-mime-data (2.4.3-1) ...
Setting up libavahi-glib1 (0.6.17-0ubuntu3) ...

Setting up gnome-keyring (0.8.1-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libnspr4 (1.firefox2.0.0.6+1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libgnomecanvas2-common (2.14.0-3ubuntu2) ...
Setting up djview (3.5.17-3ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libbonoboui2-common (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up gconf2 (2.18.0.1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libnss3 (1.firefox2.0.0.6+1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libgnome-keyring0 (0.8.1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up firefox (2.0.0.6+1-0ubuntu1) ...
Please restart any running Firefoxes, or you will experience problems.

Setting up openoffice.org-l10n-et (2.2.0-0ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libgnomecanvas2-0 (2.14.0-3ubuntu2) ...

Setting up libgnomevfs2-common (2.18.1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libgnome2-common (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libgnomeui-common (2.17.92-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libbonobo2-common (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libbonobo2-0 (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up gamin (0.1.8-1ubuntu3) ...
Setting up libgamin0 (0.1.8-1ubuntu3) ...

Setting up libgnomevfs2-0 (2.18.1-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libgnome2-0 (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...

Setting up libbonoboui2-0 (2.18.0-0ubuntu1) ...

So thanks guys for your help and next time i hope i don't mess up my adept manager again...
And now i think i know what the problem was, i got an error during the installation and pressed the wrong button :oops and that cancelled the installation and eventually left some unknown processes running.

[devils casper]

Well Done !

I would suggest you to use Synaptic instead of Adept. A lot of features are missing in Adept Package Manager.
Execute this

sudo apt-get install synaptic