Ah, I can finally reproduce this! It seems the crucial difference is using do-release-upgrade; with apt-get or apt it always works fine.
I start from a slightly minimized vivid cloud image. sudo apt-get install -y ubuntu-release-upgrader-core ofono sudo do-release-upgrade -d (using "lxc juju-local" instead of "ofono" as in bug 1490110 works too). This even works in a schroot with policy-rc.d (which is much faster as it doesn't have to dist-upgrade the kernel etc). The upgrade doesn't fail, but one still sees Setting up ofono (1.17.bzr6904+15.10.20150928.1-0ubuntu1) ... Installing new version of config file /etc/dbus-1/system.d/ofono.conf ... initctl: Unable to connect to Upstart: Failed to connect to socket /com/ubuntu/upstart: Connection refused invoke-rc.d: unknown initscript, /etc/init.d/ofono not found. invoke-rc.d: policy-rc.d denied execution of start. ** Changed in: sysvinit (Ubuntu Wily) Status: Incomplete => In Progress ** Changed in: sysvinit (Ubuntu X-series) Status: Confirmed => In Progress ** Changed in: sysvinit (Ubuntu X-series) Assignee: (unassigned) => Martin Pitt (pitti) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Touch seeded packages, which is subscribed to sysvinit in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1504897 Title: packages with only upstart+systemd without sysvinit fail to upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 100 Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader package in Ubuntu: In Progress Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in Wily: In Progress Status in ubuntu-release-upgrader source package in x-series: In Progress Bug description: After upgrade to 15.10 ProblemType: Package DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10 Package: nfs-common 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu10 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-16.19-generic 4.2.3 Uname: Linux 4.2.0-16-generic x86_64 ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu2 Architecture: amd64 Date: Sun Oct 11 04:41:20 2015 ErrorMessage: подпроцесс установлен сценарий post-installation возвратил код ошибки 100 InstallationDate: Installed on 2009-11-30 (2140 days ago) InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release amd64 (20091027.1) RelatedPackageVersions: dpkg 1.18.2ubuntu4 apt 1.0.10.2ubuntu1 SourcePackage: nfs-utils Title: package nfs-common 1:1.2.8-9ubuntu10 failed to install/upgrade: подпроцесс установлен сценарий post-installation возвратил код ошибки 100 UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2015-10-11 (0 days ago) To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-release-upgrader/+bug/1504897/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages Post to : touch-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~touch-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp