Knowledge Base

Plesk update or application installation fails on Debian or Ubuntu: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

Symptoms

Note: The article is applicable only to Plesk servers with Debian or Ubuntu operating systems.

Plesk update fails:

PLESK_ERROR: 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?

OR

PLESK_ERROR: E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend – open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to acquire the dpkg frontend lock (/var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend), is another process using it?

OR

PLESK_ERROR: ERROR: Failed to lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock

The following error can be found in /var/log/plesk/install/autoinstaller3.log:

stderr: E: Could not get lock /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
 E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/

The same error can appear during the installation of Ruby or any other Plesk component, as well as system packages installation/upgrade.

Cause

The apt-get, apt, or aptitude process is hung or was not terminated properly, therefore, the file /var/lib/dpkg/lock or /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend was not deleted.

Resolution

Note: if you do not have root access to Plesk via SSH, contact your hosting provider regarding the issue.

Note: If KernelCare is installed on the server, contact Plesk Technical support.

Connect to the server using SSH.
Kill apt-get, apt, or aptitude processes:
- Execute the following command to get the list of the processes:
  
  # ps auxx | grep ‘[d]pkg|[a]pt’
  root 1204 1.6 0.5 43264 5924 pts/1 S+ 17:05 0:00 apt-get update
  _apt 1207 0.0 0.2 40288 2900 pts/1 S+ 17:05 0:00 /usr/lib/apt/methods/http
- If any processes are shown, kill them using the below command:
  
  # kill 1204 1207
Remove the lock files:

# rm -f /var/lib/dpkg/lock*
Install Plesk updates:

# plesk installer update