I had an old server which I had forgotten to upgrade on 14:04 and decided to ugrade it to 16:04. In the process there was some powerfailure and now I am stuck in some bizarre dependency hell.

I have 474 packages not configured. Normally if things like this happen I run multiple times apt-get upgrade-f and dpkg --configure -a, occasionally unsintall an offending package as it becomes obvious - and suddenly everything dissolves into happiness and sunshine.

Here now, not. I have managed to push the unconfigured count from well over 900 down to the 474 I mentioned, but I am now stuck. Nothing shifts.

Can someone give me some generic advice how to move forward?

Honestly, having been in your position before, I'd back your data up, and do a fresh load of 16.04, since you were going to upgrade anyway. Even if you were able to get the system back up and working correctly...would you trust it afterwards? Having old/multiple libraries lurking about (maybe), and other gremlins that may be harder to detect wouldn't be worth the time. A fresh load/restore would put you on solid footing to keep moving forward.

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Reinstall best bet as mentioned. Take this as a lesson learned, buy a UPS.