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When I try to download new software or update (in terminal) I get these errors...

W: chmod 0700 of directory /var/lib/apt/lists/partial failed - setupAPTPartialDirectory (1: Operation not permitted)
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/apt/lists/lock - open (13: permission denied)
E: Unable to lock directory /var/lib/apt/lists/
E: Could not lock the file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?

This is driving me crazy! Any help would be much appreciated. I am new to Linux. Thank you in advance!

Rinzwind
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Ben Harris
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    2 things: it is custom to provide the command leading to a notice. And the last line seems pretty informative. See http://askubuntu.com/questions/764730/w-chmod-0700-of-directory-var-lib-apt-lists-partial-failed-setupaptpartialdi or http://askubuntu.com/questions/15433/unable-to-lock-the-administration-directory-var-lib-dpkg-is-another-process "sudo" is the answer. – Rinzwind Jul 02 '16 at 19:51

1 Answers1

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To run an operation such as apt-get update or apt-get install, or even something with dpkg -i etc (I assume you are running one of these or similar), you need to use sudo and run the commands with root privileges. For security reasons normal users do not have such privileges but can use root to gain them for the purpose of executing a certain command.

To run a command with sudo simply place it at the beginning like this for instance:

sudo apt-get update