apt-get install -f got me out of the dependency failure tarpit that was killing my attempts to apt-get install packages and to dpkg --configure -a. Another thing to try would've been apt-get clean -f. A subsequent apt-get dist-upgrade worked (took under 3 minutes).
At last!
apt-get install -f got me out of the dependency failure tarpit that was killing my attempts to apt-get install packages and to dpkg --configure -a. Another thing to try would've been apt-get clean -f. A subsequent apt-get dist-upgrade worked (took under 3 minutes).
Thanks to JoshuaRL on #ubuntu.