apt fails upgrading to kde 3.2

I've been working through the kde 3.2 instructions at: http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/kde31to32.html When I get to this: apt --test dist-upgrade apt fails with these errors: error: cannot get exclusive lock on /var/lib/rpm/Packages error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - Operation not permitted (1) error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm I am of course running apt as root, I have no other package managers running (that I'm aware of), and can install, remove and upgrade individual packages with apt. Any ideas as to how to fix this?