System Update froze - UbuntuMATE 16-04

[Bret Busby]

Hello.

I have tried to do a system update on this computer, which is (kind
of) running UbuntuMATE 16.04 .

The Software Updater shows

"Installing updates..."

and, under that, is
"Running post-installation trigger initramfs-tools"

(it is unfortunate that the window does not allow copying and pasting
of text in the window)

and it has been sitting there, with no progress for over half an hour
(it is on an i3CPU with 16GB of RAM, not an 8086 with 640kB of RAM).

The last two lines in the Details window (once again, it does not
allow copying and pasting), are

"
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.122ubuntu8.11)...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-127-generic
"

Above that, is this snapd thing gone wrong.

"
Setting up snapd (2.32.9) ...
Job for snapd.seeded.service failed because the control process exited
with error code.
...
snapd.seeded service couldn't start.
snapd.snap-repair.service is a disabled or a static unit, not starting it.
Setting up unattended upgrades (0.90ubuntu0.9) ...
(If only I could get rid of that thing - it sounds risky...)
"

So, I do not know whetehr it is the cause of the system upgrade fail,
but that snap d thing appears to be broken.

I am not game to kill the system update and try to reboot, in case it
can no longer find a valid kernel.

So, how dio I fix this broken system upgrade?

It has now, not changed, in about 50 minutes.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
 Chapter 28 of Book 1 of
 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
 A Trilogy In Four Parts",
 written by Douglas Adams,
 published by Pan Books, 1992

....................................................