Ubuntu
debconf package

config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable

Bug #377211 reported by cetinsert on 2009-05-16

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #349469: debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable. Edit Remove

This bug affects 10 people

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	debconf (Ubuntu)	Confirmed	High	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: postgresql-common

Using Ubuntu 9.04 Live USB created with Unetbootin, I wanted to install pgadmin to manage a company database but the package failed to install.

ProblemType: Package
Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
ErrorMessage: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
MediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" - Release i386 (20090420.1)
Package: postgresql-common 97
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: postgresql-common
Title: package postgresql-common 97 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic i686

Tags:

Revision history for this message

cetinsert (cetin-sert) wrote on 2009-05-16:

Dependencies.txt Edit (792 bytes, text/plain; charset="utf-8")
DpkgTerminalLog.txt Edit (206.4 KiB, text/plain; charset="utf-8")

Revision history for this message

Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote on 2009-06-09:

Looks like debconf failed:

Setting up postgresql-common (97) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
dpkg: error processing postgresql-common (--configure):
subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

affects:	postgresql-common (Ubuntu) → debconf (Ubuntu)
summary:	- package postgresql-common 97 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess post- - installation script returned error exit status 1 + config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily + unavailable

Martin Pitt (pitti) on 2009-10-29

Changed in debconf (Ubuntu):
status:	New → Confirmed
importance:	Undecided → High

Revision history for this message

Julian Mehnle (jmehnle) wrote on 2010-03-06:

As a resolution to the immediate lock problem, https://wiki.edubuntu.org/DebuggingInstallationIssues recommends using `fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat` to determine the process holding the lock and then killing it.

Revision history for this message

Sebastian Geiger (lanoxx) wrote on 2010-09-15:

This just happened on maverick during an unsuccesful update of samba.
Setting up samba (2:3.5.4~dfsg-1ubuntu5) ...
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
[...]
Setting up winbind (2:3.5.4~dfsg-1ubuntu5) ...
[...]
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable
Setting up linux-headers-2.6.35-21-generic (2.6.35-21.31) ...
[...]
debconf: DbDriver "config": /var/cache/debconf/config.dat is locked by another process: Resource temporarily unavailable

Using:
fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
lsof |grep config.dat

returns nothing

Revision history for this message

Antono Vasiljev (antono) wrote on 2010-09-15:

Same here.

Revision history for this message

Mads Vering (m-vering) wrote on 2011-01-31:

Try to run 'fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat' as root. I was stuck in the same situation. Killing the process holding the lock did the trick.

Revision history for this message

Alex Gg (saiconotto) wrote on 2012-10-09:

I tried all of these but 'fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat' returned nothing. However, 'sudo fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat' worked, then I killed the process (not sure exactly what it was) and reinstalled flashplugin-installer.

ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo fuser -v /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
                     USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
/var/cache/debconf/config.dat:
                     root 2931 F.... frontend
ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo fuser -k /var/cache/debconf/config.dat
/var/cache/debconf/config.dat: 2931
ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure flashplugin-installer
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: flashplugin-installer is broken or not fully installed
ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo apt-get clean
ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo apt-get flashplugin-installer
E: Invalid operation flashplugin-installer
ra@shangri-ra:~$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-installer
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
flashplugin-installer is already the newest version.
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  ttf-mscorefonts-installer
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 136 not upgraded.
2 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Y
dpkg: warning: there's no installed package matching ttf-mscorefonts-installer:i386
Setting up flashplugin-installer (11.2.202.238ubuntu0.12.04.1) ...
ra@shangri-ra:~$