Re: Synaptic error

[Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net>]

On 04/12/2020 08:46 AM, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> On Sun, Apr 12, 2020 at 08:43:12AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
> > Using Synaptic I:
> > 1. searched package names for "info"
> > 2. selected it
> > 3. clicked Apply
> > 4. received error message saying
> > > E: Could not open lock file /var/cache/apt/archives/lock - open (2: No such file or directory)
> > > E: Could not open file descriptor -1
> > > E: Unable to lock the download directory
>
> Question: is there a /var/cache/apt/archives directory? There should
> be one.
>
> Cheers
> -- t

No.
The content of /var/cache/apt is pkgcache.bin  & srcpkgcache.bin  .
As I said, there has been no previous problem with Synaptic.
Where would I look for cause of missing archives sub-directory?
Is it safe to blindly create it?