svn 1.7.8 database is locked, cannot release

Following steps worked for me.

1. Close all the files open for that repo in the other notepads/eclipse
2. run svn cleanup
3. run svn up.

may be sometimes svn keep running in the IDE(if svn configured in IDE) and locks the svn files. close your IDE and then perform clean up. or use simple way restart your pc and then perform cleanup.

In windows I killed the process TSVNCache.exe and that helped me.

This helped me solve the problem (subversion 1.7.10):

$ cd /my/repository/.svn
$ mv wc.db wc.db.old
$ sqlite3 wc.db.old
sqlite> .backup main wc.db
sqlite> .exit

After making sure it works, you can remove wc.db.old.

See also: http://technosophos.com/content/sqlite-database-locked-error-and-unlocking-database