neither networking nor lubuntu desktop survive upgrade from xenial to bionic

[gregrwm]

download xenial amd64 mini.iso onto dell inspiron 1501 laptop
boot mini.iso
install base system plus openssh-server only
reboot
apt-get update
apt-get --purge --auto-remove --fix-broken install screen tmux vim vim-doc htop firmware-b43-installer
apt-get --purge --auto-remove --fix-broken install lubuntu-desktop
reboot
login
connect wifi
edit connection to permit all users
launch terminal
$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:19:b9:67:1e:2f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.35/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::219:b9ff:fe67:1e2f/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: wlan0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:1b:fc:2c:f4:4a brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.0.37/24 brd 192.168.0.255 scope global dynamic wlan0
       valid_lft 604347sec preferred_lft 604347sec
    inet6 fe80::d226:3667:4873:5003/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
$

apt-get --purge --auto-remove --fix-broken dist-upgrade
do-release-upgrade -d
reboot
login
lightdm login screen reappears within 2 seconds (ie lubuntu desktop fails)
ctl-alt-F2
login
$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
$
(ie networking fails)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: ubuntu-release-upgrader-core 1:18.04.9
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.15.0-10.11-generic 4.15.3
Uname: Linux 4.15.0-10-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.8-0ubuntu10
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: ubuntu
Date: Sun Feb 25 16:05:23 2018
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: ubuntu-release-upgrader
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to bionic on 2018-02-25 (0 days ago)