Arch Linux

smcsw2000

Member

Registered: 2007-06-22

Posts: 130

pacman not working

I was downloading a pacman -Su when my dialup died. After getting back on line I get the following message and dont know what to do now.
error: failed to init transaction (unable to lock database)
       if you're sure a package manager is not already running,
       you can remove /tmp/pacman.lck
HELP  Thanks

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: pacman not working

pacman.lck is created by Pacman in order to prevent more than one instance of the program running at one time. When Pacman crashed on your system, it wasn't able to delete the file. So now when you try to start Pacman again, it thinks that there may be another copy already running. You can safely delete pacman.lck and Pacman will function again.

smcsw2000

Member

Registered: 2007-06-22

Posts: 130

Re: pacman not working

Deleted pacman.lck and it works now. Thanks.

tomk

Forum Fellow

From: Ireland

Registered: 2004-07-21

Posts: 9,839

Re: pacman not working

If you think the error message is not clear enough, submit a feature request with your preferred wording.

Personally, I find it acceptable, but others may agree with whatever you propose.