E: Could not get lock var lib dpkg lock frontend — open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend — open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)

If you were trying to run this command in the terminal:

$ sudo apt install software-properties-common

And this is the error message you may get:

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?

Here, below is what you need to do:

First, this may happen if

Synaptic Package Manager’ or ‘Software Updater’ is open.

Some apt command is running in Terminal.

Some apt process is running in background.

For above wait for the process to complete. If this does not happen run in terminal:

$ sudo killall apt apt-get

If none of the above works, remove the lock files. Run in terminal:

$ sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock
$ sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock
$ sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock*

then reconfigure the packages. Run in terminal:

$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
$ sudo apt update

That should do the job.