package libc6:amd64 2.23-0ubuntu4 failed to install/upgrade: package libc6:amd64 is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status 'half-installed')

[mike motley]

appears every time I start up

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: libc6:amd64 2.23-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-45.66-generic 4.4.21
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-45-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Oct 27 16:33:50 2016
Dependencies:
 gcc-6-base 6.0.1-0ubuntu1
 libc6 2.23-0ubuntu4
 libgcc1 1:6.0.1-0ubuntu1
DpkgTerminalLog:
 dpkg: error processing package libc6:amd64 (--configure):
  package libc6:amd64 is not ready for configuration
  cannot configure (current status 'half-installed')
ErrorMessage: package libc6:amd64 is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status 'half-installed')
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-09-23 (40 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Lubuntu 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160720)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.1
 apt 1.2.12~ubuntu16.04.1
SourcePackage: glibc
Title: package libc6:amd64 2.23-0ubuntu4 failed to install/upgrade: package libc6:amd64 is not ready for configuration cannot configure (current status 'half-installed')
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Ceiling Cat (ceilingcat-r)]

This prevents the installation of g++, gcc-multilib, g++-multilib among others. gcc can still be installed but it can only generate binaries that don't depend on libc.

This bug does not seem to appear when a system is upgraded from lubuntu 14.04.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ceiling Cat (ceilingcat-r)]

Possible solution here
http://askubuntu.com/questions/760634/cannot-install-build-essential-on-ubuntu-16-04

[Ceiling Cat (ceilingcat-r)]

Shortly after installation, I went into update-manager->Settings->Updates and unselected everything except for "Important security updates". This seemed to be the cause of the problem I was observing (may not be the case for others). To fix, I selected "Recommended updates", ran apt-get update, and then unselected "Recommended updates".