{"id":11300,"date":"2022-07-26T19:21:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opstree.com\/blog\/\/?p=11300"},"modified":"2022-08-02T11:44:01","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T06:14:01","slug":"how-to-fix-the-dpkg-lock-file-error-in-packer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opstree.com\/blog\/2022\/07\/26\/how-to-fix-the-dpkg-lock-file-error-in-packer\/","title":{"rendered":"How to fix the dpkg lock file error in Packer?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Today everyone is switching to cloud platforms. To this, we need to install basic software or modify certain Configurations in each server and to all this, we call prerequisites. So we have a concept of creating a BASE IMAGE<\/strong> and GOLDEN IMAGE<\/strong>. We were creating Golden Server Image for one of our clients using Packer <\/strong>to fulfill the prerequisites, and it is when I faced this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018E: Could not get lock \/var\/lib\/dpkg\/lock\u2019<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Firstly, we will talk about Packer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
What is Packer?<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Packer is an open-source<\/em><\/strong> DevOps <\/strong>tool made by Hashicorp<\/strong> to create identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single JSON config file. This tool really works when it comes to creating immutable architecture. Which helps us to create instances with predefined requirements of the client and requesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How to use Packer?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You can use Packer for AWS, GCP, Azure, <\/strong>etc.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Packer is a template-driven <\/strong>tool and templates are written in JSON<\/strong> format.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
{\n\n  \"variables\": {\n\n    \"region\": \"\"\n\n  },\n\n  \"builders\": [\n\n    {\n\n      \"type\": \"amazon-ebs\",\n\n      \"profile\": \"default\",\n\n      \"region\": \"{{user `region`}}\",\n\n      \"instance_type\": \"t2.micro\",\n\n      \"source_ami\": \"base_AMI\",\n\n      \"ssh_username\": \"ssh-user\"\n\n    }\n\n  ],\n\n  \"provisioners\": [\n\n    {\n\n      \"type\": \"shell\",\n\n      \"script\": \".\/script.sh\"\n\n    },\n\n    {\n\n      \"type\": \"shell\",\n\n      \"inline\": [\n\n        \"sudo apt update\",\n\n        \"sleep 20\"\n\n      ]\n\n    },\n\n    {\n\n      \"type\": \"shell\",\n\n      \"script\": \"install.sh\",\n\n      \"max_retries\": \"15\"\n\n    }\n\n  ]\n\n}<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
oftentimes, while running this packer script we all see an error like <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<strong>\u201c \/var\/lib\/dpkg\/lock-frontend \u201d<\/strong><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
It happened to me as well. When we were creating an Image for one of our applications. It was being created on Amazon Machine Image<\/strong> and while running one of the bash scripts, the Packer pipeline broke down repeatedly. That got me confused and  I was clueless about how to fix it. So, I started exploring this error and I found the cause below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n