While trying to install the flash for firefox in ubuntu I received an error.
The error arose when just a couple of minutes after fresh installation of ubuntu 10.10 I tried to install adobe flash for firefox to make flash based applications and websites to work on my system, I received an error saying:
Unable to get exclusive lock
This usually means that another package management application (like apt-get or aptitude) is already running. Please close that application first.
Pretty fine! So what’s the solution to this error, well. just as it says! let the first window be closed first which is using the installer already.
As I just installed ubuntu 10.10, I turned on the updates to get all the packages up to date, so this is the reason I was getting this error. You should make sure too that no window is opened which is updating or installing anything. If it’s there, then just wait for it to close or if it’s not that much important or urgent, simply close it manually.
By the way, I was wondering if the error should say “please wait for the application to close” rather than saying “close that application first” directly!