[bitfolk] Ubuntu/Apt f*ckery

I have an old Ubuntu 16.04 install that is beginning to give me a tonne of grief with apt. It has now happily upgraded (well) past kernel 4.4.0-210, but it's refusing to go further because it can't remove -210 any more: # apt remove --purge linux-modules-extra-4.4.0-210-generic Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following packages will be REMOVED linux-headers-4.4.0-210-generic linux-modules-4.4.0-210-generic linux-modules-extra-4.4.0-210-generic 0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 3 to remove and 18 not to upgrade. 3 not fully installed or removed. After this operation, 225 MB disk space will be freed. Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y (Reading database ... 149323 files and directories currently installed.) Removing linux-headers-4.4.0-210-generic (4.4.0-210.242) ... dpkg: error processing package linux-headers-4.4.0-210-generic (--remove): unable to securely remove '/usr/src/linux-headers-4.4.0-210-generic/include/config/generic/isa/dma.h': Not a directory Removing linux-modules-4.4.0-210-generic (4.4.0-210.242) ... dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-4.4.0-210-generic (--remove): unable to securely remove '/lib/modules/4.4.0-210-generic/kernel/fs/nfs/nfsv4.ko': Not a directory Removing linux-modules-extra-4.4.0-210-generic (4.4.0-210.242) ... dpkg: error processing package linux-modules-extra-4.4.0-210-generic (--remove): unable to securely remove '/lib/modules/4.4.0-210-generic/kernel/fs/nfs/blocklayout': Not a directory Errors were encountered while processing: linux-headers-4.4.0-210-generic linux-modules-4.4.0-210-generic linux-modules-extra-4.4.0-210-generic E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) apt upgrades are failing as a result of this. I've been slowly reinstating files (using touch), but is there a way to *genuinely force* apt to remove/purge when it gets into a state like this? Kind regards Murray Crane