# msg: Failed to lock apt for exclusive operation

**URL:** <https://forum.ansible.com/t/msg-failed-to-lock-apt-for-exclusive-operation/16756>\
**Category:** Ansible Project\
**Created:** [November 12, 2014, 11:38am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/msg-failed-to-lock-apt-for-exclusive-operation/16756 "2014-11-12T11:38:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nataliia.mazur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/db5fbb/32.png) [@nataliia.mazur](https://forum.ansible.com/u/nataliia.mazur)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 11:38am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/msg-failed-to-lock-apt-for-exclusive-operation/16756/1 "2014-11-12T11:38:10Z")

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Hi folks.

I try to run such yaml using **ansible 1.8** via Web-UI Tower:

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**Author:** ![Greg\_Andrews](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6bbea6/32.png) [@Greg\_Andrews](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Greg_Andrews)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 10:59pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/msg-failed-to-lock-apt-for-exclusive-operation/16756/2 "2014-11-12T22:59:40Z")

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When I get that error, it’s usually because Ansible didn’t try to sudo to the root user, or Ansible’s attempt to sudo was not successful.

Does invoking lots of verbose messages with the -vvvv option to the ansible-playbook command show a successful sudo?

-Greg

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**Author:** ![sci031374](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47774/32.png) [@sci031374](https://forum.ansible.com/u/sci031374)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 8:43pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/msg-failed-to-lock-apt-for-exclusive-operation/16756/3 "2014-11-19T20:43:10Z")

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Please make sure you can SSH as rnd at the terminal and do a sudo first. rnd must be a sudo user.

Try this instead.

remote\_user: rnd
