still can't upgrade see the terminal output please.

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs#When%20not%20to%20file%20a%20bug.

This was a new re-install not a fresh install, so I believe this a bug
that Unbuntu Bug Report should be aware and not launchpad. Not trying
to argue but I have had tbhis same problem before I re-installed
concerning upgrades/dist-upgrades.

The two 'E' statements below is a bug within the 14.04 version of
Xubuntu. If you want me to report to them I will but they told me I had
to file this bug report to you and not their launchpad concerning this
new version. And when I was doing the upgrades I was in 'sudo' so I was
root!

Sincerely
Brian J. Slease

On 03/11/2014 01:16 PM, Brian J Slease wrote:
> New question #245333 on ubuntu-release-upgrader in Ubuntu:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+question/245333
>
> E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
> E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root? I have been trying to upgrade 14.04 and I keep getting this error message in the terminal - it's the release upgrade/dist-upgrade, I get the same error message in the terminal, please let me know what I can do to fix this, thank you.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
> Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:0.216
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-16.36-generic 3.13.5
> Uname: Linux 3.13.0-16-generic x86_64
> ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
> Architecture: amd64
> CrashDB: ubuntu
> CurrentDesktop: XFCE
> Date: Mon Mar 10 19:34:37 2014
> InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-03-08 (2 days ago)
> InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 14.04 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Alpha amd64 (20140121.1)
> PackageArchitecture: all
> SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
> Symptom: release-upgrade
> UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
>

What is the output of

sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch-data

On 03/12/2014 10:21 AM, Manfred Hampl wrote:
> Your question #245333 on ubuntu-release-upgrader in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+question/245333
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> What is the output of
>
> sudo apt-get autoremove
> sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch-data
>
Below is the output you requested Manfred Hampl:

brian@brian-Satellite-L775D:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove
[sudo] password for brian:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
   linux-headers-3.13.0-5 linux-headers-3.13.0-5-generic
   linux-image-3.13.0-5-generic linux-image-extra-3.13.0-5-generic
   python-apport python-keyring python-launchpadlib
python-lazr.restfulclient
   python-lazr.uri python-oauth python-problem-report python-secretstorage
   python-simplejson python-wadllib
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 14 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
After this operation, 269 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
(Reading database ... 211738 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing linux-headers-3.13.0-5-generic (3.13.0-5.20) ...
Removing linux-headers-3.13.0-5 (3.13.0-5.20) ...
Removing linux-image-extra-3.13.0-5-generic (3.13.0-5.20) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools
3.13.0-5-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-5-generic
update-initramfs: Deleting /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-5-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub
3.13.0-5-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-5-generic
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-16-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-5-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda2
done
Removing linux-image-3.13.0-5-generic (3.13.0-5.20) ...
Examining /etc/kernel/postrm.d .
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/initramfs-tools
3.13.0-5-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-5-generic
update-initramfs: Deleting /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-5-generic
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub
3.13.0-5-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-5-generic
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-17-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-17-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-16-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-16-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Windows 7 (loader) on /dev/sda2
done
Removing python-apport (2.13.3-0ubuntu1) ...
Removing python-launchpadlib (1.10.2+ds-2) ...
Removing python-keyring (3.5-1) ...
Removing python-lazr.restfulclient (0.13.3-1build1) ...
Removing python-wadllib (1.3.2-2build1) ...
Removing python-lazr.uri (1.0.3-1build1) ...
E: namespace:121: cannot remove
/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/lazr/__init__.py
Removing python-oauth (1.0.1-3build2) ...
Removing python-problem-report (2.13.3-0ubuntu1) ...
Removing python-secretstorage (2.0.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Removing python-simplejson (3.3.1-1ubuntu5) ...
brian@brian-Satellite-L775D:~$ sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch-data
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
   usb-modeswitch
The following packages will be upgraded:
   usb-modeswitch-data
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 27.3 kB of archives.
After this operation, 179 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty-proposed/main
usb-modeswitch-data all 20131113-1 [27.3 kB]
Fetched 27.3 kB in 0s (102 kB/s)
(Reading database ... 181976 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing usb-modeswitch (1.2.3+repack0-1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.6-1) ...
(Reading database ... 181966 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../usb-modeswitch-data_20131113-1_all.deb ...
Unpacking usb-modeswitch-data (20131113-1) over (20120815-2) ...
Setting up usb-modeswitch-data (20131113-1) ...
brian@brian-Satellite-L775D:~$

Manfres
On 03/12/2014 10:21 AM, Manfred Hampl wrote:
> Your question #245333 on ubuntu-release-upgrader in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+question/245333
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> What is the output of
>
> sudo apt-get autoremove
> sudo apt-get install usb-modeswitch-data
>
Manfred

As you can see the two different outputs from termnial are totally
different, I could not believe the one Isent you a few minutes ago,
compared to the ubuntu-bug report I sent earlier in the morning. I hope
they are fixed now.

Idid send in a report concerning my off and on problems with logging on,
my cursor/pointer would freeze and I could not logon with my password at
the start up, thought it was fixed because i had several re-starts to
test it out yesterday but when I shutdown my laptop last night and tried
to get on it was frozen and I had to do numerous things to get logged on
eventually I had to go to the old kernel and that worked so I got off
and went to the latest kernel and I finally was able to log on with my
password. I hope soon that will be fixed. I know I'm using a
pre-release and I would hate to leave it but I will. If you offer me
any suggestions on this i would be much appreciative.

Sincerely
Brian J. Slease

My remarks:

1. "sudo apt-get ..." sometimes recommends to remove obsolete packages with a text like

The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  <packagenames...>
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.

The problem is that just executing "apt-get autoremove" usually does not have enough rights to do that ("E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?"), but only the command "sudo apt-get autoremove" can do that.

2. You are using the trusty release that is still in development, with packages being changed rapidly and still potential inconsistencies between them. This is true especially when you have the trusty-proposed repository enabled.

Just look at
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/trusty/arm64/usb-modeswitch-data/20131113-1 (in trusty-proposed)
Breaks: usb-modeswitch (<< 1.2.7)
Recommends: usb-modeswitch (>= 1.2.7)

But according to https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/usb-modeswitch a higher version of usb-modeswitch than 1.2.3+repack0-1ubuntu3 is not yet available in any standard repository.

So the problem with usb-modeswitch is caused by your selection of an unstable development version.

I cannot understand why so many persons upgrade to the development version if they are not able to cope with such errors.