upgrader hung at installing new version of libutempter0

Upgrading 14.04.3 to 16.04.

Upgrade hung at installing new version of /etc/gnome/defaults.list

dpkg --configure -a after reboot allowed upgrade to continue.

Further errors encountered with
xterm
xubuntu-core
xubuntu-desktop
resolvconf

Further efforts to fix with dpkg and apt-get left machine with

test@test-VirtualBox:~$ sudo apt-get install -f
[sudo] password for test:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gir1.2-vte-2.90 gnome-desktop-data gstreamer0.10-alsa gstreamer0.10-nice
  gstreamer0.10-plugins-good gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio gstreamer0.10-x iproute
  libamd2.3.1 libavcodec54 libavformat54 libavutil52 libcamd2.3.1
  libcamel-1.2-45 libccolamd2.8.0 libcholmod2.1.2 libcolamd2.8.0 libcolord1
  libcolorhug1 libebook-contacts-1.2-0 libedataserver-1.2-18 libelfg0
  libfarstream-0.1-0 libframe6 libgail-3-0 libgegl-0.2-0 libgeis1
  libgnome-bluetooth11 libgphoto2-port10 libgrail6 libgrip0 libgtkmathview0c2a
  libgtksourceview2.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-common libicu52 libilmbase6
  libimobiledevice4 libisl10 libjavascriptcoregtk-1.0-0 libmbim-glib0
  libminiupnpc8 libntdb1 libopenexr6 libopenjpeg2 libopenobex1
  libparted0debian1 libplist1 libpoppler44 libpython3.4 libqmi-glib0 libqpdf13
  librtmp0 libsystemd-daemon0 libsystemd-login0 libt1-5 libumfpack5.6.2
  libupower-glib1 libusbmuxd2 libvpx1 libvte-2.90-9 libvte-2.90-common
  libwebkitgtk-1.0-0 libwebkitgtk-1.0-common libwpd-0.9-9 libwpg-0.2-2
  libwps-0.2-2 libx264-142 libxcb-util0 libxfce4util6 libxvmc1 nautilus-data
  obex-data-server python-commandnotfound python-dbus-dev python-gconf
  python-gdbm python-gnomekeyring python-gobject python-imaging python-libxml2
  python-notify python-ntdb python-pexpect python-pil python-renderpm
  python-reportlab python-reportlab-accel python-requests python-smbc
  python-urllib3 xserver-xorg-video-ati-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-cirrus-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-fbdev-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-intel-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-mach64-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-mga-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-neomagic-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-openchrome-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-qxl-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-r128-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-radeon-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-savage-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-sisusb-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-tdfx-lts-wily xserver-xorg-video-trident-lts-wily
  xserver-xorg-video-vesa-lts-wily
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 2 not to upgrade.
5 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Setting up resolvconf (1.78ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libutempter0:amd64 (1.1.6-1ubuntu1) ...
The utempter system group isn't used anymore by this package
chown: cannot access ‘/usr/lib/utempter’: No such file or directory
dpkg: error processing package libutempter0:amd64 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xterm:
 xterm depends on libutempter0 (>= 1.1.5); however:
  Package libutempter0:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package xterm (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xubuntu-core:
 xubuntu-core depends on xterm; however:
  Package xterm is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package xubuntu-core (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure.
                          dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of xubuntu-desktop:
 xubuntu-desktop depends on xterm; however:
  Package xterm is not configured yet.
 xubuntu-desktop depends on xubuntu-core; however:
  Package xubuntu-core is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package xubuntu-desktop (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
No apport report written because MaxReports is reached already
                                                              Processing triggers for resolvconf (1.78ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.21-0ubuntu5) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libutempter0:amd64
 xterm
 xubuntu-core
 xubuntu-desktop
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
test@test-VirtualBox:~$
---
ApportVersion: 2.19.4-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-02-14 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 14.04.4 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Beta amd64 (20160214)
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-28.33~14.04.1-generic 4.2.8-ckt3
Tags: xenial dist-upgrade
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-28-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True