system hangs in prompt when running apt-get dist-upgrade

[Georg Klein]

When using AWS AMI ami-1c45e273 (Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type)

Linux ip-10-222-127-236 4.4.0-1020-aws #29-Ubuntu SMP Wed Jun 14 15:54:52 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS
Release: 16.04

the system hangs during automated image creation in the phase
'apt-get dist-upgrade -y' but also when running 'apt-get dist-upgrade -qq --force-yes' and prompts for user input:

[...]
Searching for splash image ... none found, skipping ...
Found kernel: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-81-generic
A new version of /boot/grub/menu.lst is available, but the version installed
currently has been locally modified.

  1. install the package maintainer's version
  2. keep the local version currently installed
  3. show the differences between the versions
  4. show a side-by-side difference between the versions
  5. show a 3-way difference between available versions
  6. do a 3-way merge between available versions (experimental)
  7. start a new shell to examine the situation

What would you like to do about menu.lst?
[...]

Previously reported workarounds for the bug in earlier versions like running '/usr/sbin/update-grub-legacy-ec2' do not fix the problem.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

I think this is a duplicate of bug 1747464. If you disagree please say so and we can unmark it. I realise you filed first, but my report has more of the background, so I'm marking the duplicate backwards.