apt-get could not open lock file

Question

I am trying to get an nfs client running on a Sheeva-plug running debian 2.6.22. The host is Ubuntu 12.04 and claims (from showmount -e) to be exporting the desired directory. There is no showmount binary in the sheeva-plug, so I'm trying to install it from the nfs-common package:

 # apt-get install nfs-common

The response ends with

 E: could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (no such file or directory)
 E: Unable to lock the download directory.

I am root while doing this. Similar errors arise when trying to install other packages.

How do I correct these errors so apt-get will do its work?

Answer 1

According to the error message the file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock doesn't exist anymore on your computer. You can just simply create it:

sudo touch /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

However maybe there is also another directory missing. Please have a look if /var/cache/apt/archives/partial exists. If not create it:

sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/apt/archives/partial

Now your installation should work as expected.