I run pamac update --no-aur but got the above message and the update process was stuck there. I have removed /var/lib/pacman/db.lck and tried rebooting, but the same problem happens. It happened after the last update and orphans clean up.
The system is Manjaro with KDE Plasma.
Could you perhaps be a little more verbose with your description of the issue?
At this point, the warning message is clear – another package manager is active, or hasn’t yet terminated.
Sometimes, if another package manager – let’s say for example – pamac-manager (Add/Remove Software) is still checking for updates, pacman will give that message.
Usually, closing the other package manager, or waiting for it to finish, will allow pacman to continue.
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I edited my post however I have no idea how to make it more informative than its current state. I have closed the GUI and it was not running an install. I clicked quit on its tray icon but its icon won’t go away, probably because there are packages to be updated.
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I solved it. It turns out that I really need to wait until pamac’s GUI is closed completely (by quitting it and ensuring that its icon on the icon tray disappear). I thought the GUI was not the issue because it’s essentially pamac, and not “another package manager”, but I was wrong.
The pamac-daemon.service runs at system start and this will trigger a check for updates.
It is quite possible that your action collide with the pamac-daemon started by the service.
Usually the lock is released after a few seconds.
So do not - blinkdly - remove the db.lck file, unless you are absolute sure it is a dead file.
How do I tell it is a dead file already?
Check the time stamp
stat /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
The lock file is to ensure two invocations of a package manager will not run side by side as this may cause inconsistencies in the package information.
For the sake of demonstration, I run the command and then wait at the continue prompt
$ echo $(date); sudo pacman -Syu
fre 17 jul 17:20:42 CEST 2026
:: Synchronizing package databases...
core is up to date
[...]
Total Download Size: 81,55 MiB
Total Installed Size: 254,68 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 5,49 MiB
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
open another terminal and run
$ stat /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
File: /var/lib/pacman/db.lck
Size: 0 Blocks: 0 IO Block: 4096 regular empty file
Device: 259,2 Inode: 50724981 Links: 1
Access: (0000/----------) Uid: ( 0/ root) Gid: ( 0/ root)
Access: 2026-07-17 17:20:42.735623475 +0200
Modify: 2026-07-17 17:20:42.735623475 +0200
Change: 2026-07-17 17:20:42.735623475 +0200
Birth: 2026-07-17 17:20:42.735623475 +0200
Look at the birth line - the time stamp indicates it has been created when I ran the pacman update command.
Birth: 2026-07-17 17:20:42.735623475 +0200
I am not sure I get your demonstration. Do you mean the file was born when you ran the stat command? Why is that an issue, that just means the file existed, no?
No - it was created when I ran the pacman -Syu command.
The same happens if you run pamac update.
The package manager library libalpm creates the lock file.
What I am saying - if the lockfile birth is older than the last reboot - just an example - then it is a dead file - if it is only a few seconds old then another instance of libalpm has created the lock and you should definitely let that instance finish before you run your maintenance task.