Comment release upgrade with apt-get dist-upgrade (Score 1) 1231
The proper and supported method is to do:
sudo apt-get install update-manager-core && sudo do-release-upgrade
So while you did not specify how you tried the initial upgrade attempt, if it happened to be via apt-get dist-upgrade it was in no way ubuntu's fault that your system got hosed.
I really wonder how many of these people (again, maybe or maybe not you) with all these upgrade horror stories have tried to upgrade via apt-get dist-upgrade instead of the proper, documented, and supported method.