More Ubuntu help please

I've been trying to setup my Ubuntu all day now-- it's getting frustrating.

during the tweaks,
i managed to finish "sudo apt-get update"
However, the second one (sudo apt-get upgrade) took over an hour, and i believe it froze. (it was stuck on the same thing for over 20 minutes). So i turned off the computer and assumed it was finished.

Also, if i try to do "sudo apt-get upgrade" again I get a message saying "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?"

Now when I log onto my Ubuntu, on the task bar, there is a red arrow icon telling me I have 16 updates.
i right click and hit "install updates" and I'll get something like "Unable to get exclusive lock" "this usually means that another package management application (like apt-get or aptitude) isalready running. Please close that application first.

Similarly, continuing with the Ubuntu tweaks.. the next step is System > Administration > Hardware Drivers ... it won't load!

also sometimes i get something about a dpkg configuration and something being interrupted.
"E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem."


Help is appreciated.
Thanks

 

ok first of all, never ever kill the apt process (if you're using the terminal) before it's finished, or you will keep having this problem.

Try to use the GUI to do everything if you're not familiar at first, because that manages locked files a lot better. Witha GUI you can safely cancel anything that is still downloading, but never ever cancel anything that is trying to install.

To fix your specific problem, try

Code:

sudo rm -r /var/lib/dpkg/lock

and then try refreshing the updates icon, or running Synaptic from your menu.

That should fix it. Synaptic may also tell you that you have a broken package - it will tell you what to do to fix it.