Unlock Administrattion Directory - Ubuntu

You can delete the lock file with the following command:

sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock

You may also need to delete the lock file in the cache directory

sudo rm /var/cache/apt/archives/lock

sudo dpkg --configure -a

/************************************************************/
                             OR                            
/************************************************************/

The lock is placed when an apt process is running, and is removed when the process completes. If there is a lock with no apparent process running, this may mean the process got stuck for some reason.

If you try

ps aux | grep apt

that will catch processes containing the word apt, at least. If you see an apt-get process or an aptitude process that looks stuck, you can try

kill processnumber

and if that doesn't work try

kill -9 processnumber

This should kill the process and may remove the lock. Killing an apt or aptitude process is harmless unless it is actually in the middle of package installation. In any case, if the process got stuck, you probably don't have a choice but to kill it.