How do you fix open lock file when you don't show in sudoers

[triscele]

I apologize beforehand for what may be be a noob question. I was trying to setup a LAMP server and it said to run apt-get update to get new versions of all of the packages. When I try that, it gives me a
Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock.... then Unable to lock the list directory.

It was recommended on various posts to use sudo. When I tried that I get a message saying that I am not in the sudoers list. To my knowledge I only have one login so I am at a loss to know where to go next. I have the Linux Bible but so far can't seem to find anything there.

On the positive side, I can browse to the machine

Another question I have, in anticipation I could get this up, I downloaded several files expecting them to be in the downloads folder and I don't see them anywhere, any ideas?

Thanks for your help,

Ignorance is not a good time

Kevin

[Pick2]

sudo is not set up in debian. Normally we use su , followed by root's password , which will drop you into the root user's account. Then use exit to return to your normal user. If you su into root , it might solve all your problems.
sudo is not hard to set up , it works well for multi user setups , but is not really needed if you are the only user and admin of the box.

[triscele]

thrilled with the quick response. It did get me somewhere new. Unfortunately it now says Unknown id: apt-get. I will check after an appointment to see if I can find that online somewhere. Thanks again for your assistance.

[cnoyes]

you typed "su apt-get" so your shell thought you were trying to pass to the command SU, the id of apt-get. Instead, type su on it's own line, and then wait for it to prompt for password. Type in the root password(first account you setup during install) and then type 'apt-get update' once su has completed.

[triscele]

That seems to have done the trick. I'm at least making some progress now. Thanks for spending the time to help out. It is appreciated.

[cnoyes]

Glad to hear you're making progress, Debian is a great distro for a LAMP server. sudo is a convention not really used in Debian, more commonly in Debian derivatives. If you feel more comfortable using sudo however, you can add your user to the sudoers file(/etc/sudoers) to do this type(as root):

Code: Select all

visudo

look for a line that reads 'root ALL=(ALL) ALL'
underneath it, you want to make an identical entry, but replace root with your normal username. When you're done adding the line type ctrl x to exit, and when prompted type y to save it. Now you're a sudoer.

Hope this helps.