[chef] transient dpkg lock issues?

[Matthew Todd < >]

Hi, all --

I'm seeing a bit of transient weirdness:

I'm running chef-client in a VMware guest (Ubuntu 9.04), having it  
call out to a chef-server running on my laptop.

Occasionally, some apt package installation (though not the same one  
every time) will fail because the dpkg lock is still open, presumably  
from the preceding apt action.

Here's an example of how it looks in the logs:

[Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:09:39 +0000] INFO: Installing package[apache2]  
version 2.2.11-2ubuntu2
[Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:09:48 +0000] INFO: Upgrading package[apache2- 
prefork-dev] version from uninstalled to 2.2.11-2ubuntu2
/var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/mixin/command.rb:157:in  
`run_command': apt-get -q -y install apache2-prefork- 
dev=2.2.11-2ubuntu2 returned 100, expected 0 (Chef::Exceptions::Exec)
---- Begin output of apt-get -q -y install apache2-prefork- 
dev=2.2.11-2ubuntu2 ----
STDOUT: STDERR: E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11  
Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is  
another process using it?---- End output of apt-get -q -y install  
apache2-prefork-dev=2.2.11-2ubuntu2 ----
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/mixin/command.rb: 
133:in `chdir'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/mixin/command.rb: 
133:in `run_command'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/provider/package/ 
apt.rb:68:in `install_package'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/provider/package/ 
apt.rb:73:in `upgrade_package'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/provider/package.rb: 
70:in `action_upgrade'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/runner.rb:87:in `send'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/runner.rb:87:in  
`converge'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/runner.rb:85:in `each'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/runner.rb:85:in  
`converge'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/ 
resource_collection.rb:58:in `each'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/ 
resource_collection.rb:57:in `each'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/runner.rb:63:in  
`converge'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/client.rb:373:in  
`converge'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/client.rb:81:in `run'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/application/ 
client.rb:164:in `run_application'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/application/ 
client.rb:162:in `loop'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/application/ 
client.rb:162:in `run_application'
	from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/lib/chef/application.rb:57:in  
`run'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/gems/chef-0.7.4/bin/chef-client:26
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/bin/chef-client:19:in `load'
        from /var/lib/gems/1.8/bin/chef-client:19

It's a bit maddening, because it's not always the same package that  
fails, and not even every run that some package fails -- just often  
enough to make me want to close my eyes and hope it will go away!

Any thoughts?

I've been reading through Chef::Mixin::Command#popen4, but I've  
reached my present brain-melting threshold.

Thanks in advance for any leads,  -- Matthew