Ah, I finally got this sorted by installing the required packages (xfonts-utils) and dependencies using the --download-only option, and installing them directly from /var/cache/apt/archives/, if it helps anyone.
-- insufficient dependency on xfonts-utils https://launchpad.net/bugs/52803 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
