base-files update causes dpkg error

[njparton]

Binary package hint: base-files

neil@nas:~$ sudo apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages have been kept back:
  bind9-host dnsutils libbind9-30 libisccc30 libisccfg30 linux-image-server linux-server openssh-client openssh-server
The following packages will be upgraded:
  clamav clamav-base clamav-freshclam dbus dbus-x11 libclamav3 libdbus-1-3 libpam-smbpass libsmbclient module-init-tools passwd
  samba samba-common samba-doc smbclient smbfs winbind
17 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0B/39.4MB of archives.
After this operation, 778kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Setting up base-files (4.0.1ubuntu5.8.04.3) ...
chown: invalid group: `root:utmp'
dpkg: error processing base-files (--configure):
 subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 base-files
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

This has been occuring for several days now, I have tried updating apt several times, but this error persists. I have removed the base-files .deb file from the apt cache and tried again, but this error won't go away. I am using 8.04 LTS AMD64 server distro.

[njparton (njparton)]

Solved via this bug:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/base-files/+bug/292116