during dist-upgrade from 16.04 to 18.04, virtuoso-nepomuk blocked initscripts from installing

[Joni Nevalainen]

lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS
Release: 16.04

While running distribution upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04, the terminal reported too many errors during upgrade and your system may be in an unusable state.

Took a look here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtuoso-opensource/+bug/1542453

With fix suggestion:
I removed /etc/init.d/virtuoso-nepomuk
then
sudo dpkg --configure -a
sudo apt-get purge virtuoso-nepomuk
sudo apt-get install -f
sudo apt-get upgrade

- Found errored packages by running dpkg --configure -a
Setting up initscripts (2.88dsf-59.3ubuntu2) ...
insserv: warning: script 'screen-cleanup' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: Default-Start undefined, assuming empty start runlevel(s) for script `screen-cleanup'
insserv: Default-Stop undefined, assuming empty stop runlevel(s) for script `screen-cleanup'
insserv: warning: script 'binfmt-support' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: Default-Start undefined, assuming empty start runlevel(s) for script `binfmt-support'
insserv: Default-Stop undefined, assuming empty stop runlevel(s) for script `binfmt-support'
insserv: Script virtuoso-nepomuk is broken: missing end of LSB comment.
insserv: warning: script 'virtuoso-nepomuk' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: warning: script 'screen-cleanup' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: Default-Start undefined, assuming empty start runlevel(s) for script `screen-cleanup'
insserv: Default-Stop undefined, assuming empty stop runlevel(s) for script `screen-cleanup'
insserv: warning: script 'binfmt-support' missing LSB tags and overrides
insserv: Default-Start undefined, assuming empty start runlevel(s) for script `binfmt-support'
insserv: Default-Stop undefined, assuming empty stop runlevel(s) for script `binfmt-support'
insserv: Script virtuoso-nepomuk is broken: missing end of LSB comment.
insserv: exiting now!
update-rc.d: error: insserv rejected the script header
dpkg: error processing package initscripts (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

- Also took a look at logs in /var/log/dist-upgrade/

- Searched for related packages of the scripts
dpkg -S /etc/init.d/virtuoso-nepomuk
virtuoso-nepomuk: /etc/init.d/virtuoso-nepomuk

dpkg -S /etc/init.d/binfmt-support
binfmt-support: /etc/init.d/binfmt-support

dpkg -S /etc/init.d/screen-cleanup
screen: /etc/init.d/screen-cleanup

- Tried to remove errored packages
apt-get remove virtuoso-nepomuk binfmt-support screen
...
Package 'virtuoso-nepomuk' is not installed, so not removed

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  binfmt-support playonlinux screen wine wine1.6 wine1.6-i386

- Tried harder
apt-get purge virtuoso-nepomuk binfmt-support screen

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  binfmt-support* screen* virtuoso-nepomuk*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
940 not fully installed or removed.
After this operation, 0 B of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 777471 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing binfmt-support (2.1.6-1) ...
Purging configuration files for binfmt-support (2.1.6-1) ...
insserv: Script virtuoso-nepomuk is broken: missing end of LSB comment.
insserv: exiting now!
update-rc.d: error: insserv rejected the script header
dpkg: error processing package binfmt-support (--purge):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing screen (4.3.1-2build1) ...
Purging configuration files for screen (4.3.1-2build1) ...
insserv: Script virtuoso-nepomuk is broken: missing end of LSB comment.
insserv: exiting now!
update-rc.d: error: insserv rejected the script header
dpkg: error processing package screen (--purge):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 1
Removing virtuoso-nepomuk (6.1.4+dfsg1-0ubuntu1) ...
Purging configuration files for virtuoso-nepomuk (6.1.4+dfsg1-0ubuntu1) ...
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

- Tried to resume upgrade
apt-get install -f

this (re-)installed a LOT of packages. Maybe not the best idea.

- Tried to configure them
dpkg --configure -a

Nothing, curious..

- Tried to resume distribution upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libfarstream-0.2-5 libpurple0
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpurple-bin

- Autoremoved obsolete packages
apt-get autoremove

- Might want to consider reinstalling
openvpn

- Doublechecks
apt-get upgrade
 (nothing)
dpkg --configure -a
 (nothing)

apt-cache search wayland
apt-cache showpkg xwayland
apt-cache showpkg grub

- Rebooted, system logged in succesfully. Complained about some crash errors, so here is one of them reported.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: initscripts 2.88dsf-59.3ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-171.200-generic 4.4.203
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-171-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.21
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jan 19 08:09:07 2020
DpkgHistoryLog:
 Start-Date: 2020-01-19 08:08:57
 Commandline: apt-get remove virtuoso-nepomuk binfmt-support screen
 Requested-By: neva (1000)
 Remove: screen:i386 (4.3.1-2build1), wine1.6:i386 (1:1.6.2-0ubuntu14.2), wine1.6-i386:i386 (1:1.6.2-0ubuntu14.2), binfmt-support:i386 (2.1.6-1), wine:i386 (1:1.6.2-0ubuntu14.2), playonlinux:i386 (4.2.10-2ubuntu0.1)
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2010-06-25 (3494 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release i386 (20100429)
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.6
 apt 1.2.32
SourcePackage: sysvinit
Title: package initscripts 2.88dsf-59.3ubuntu2 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to xenial on 2020-01-19 (0 days ago)