This is the first time that this has happened but I will post this for
the edification of anybody who this may happen to.

While upgrading from 12.04 to 12.10 it got through downloading and was
installing the packages when it froze at 66%. I left it over night to
be sure. Next day, it was still at 66%. I checked for any dialog
boxes. There were none, so I closed the upgrade box where I got the
warning, Are you sure. It could destabilize your system. What choice
did I have? so yeas, I closed it.

What to do next? I opened a terminal and tried: sudo dpkg --configure
-a, but it was locked. It said another process was using the package
manager. So then I tried: sudo rm /var/lib/apt/lists/lock and found
that it did not work still. It was still locked. So then I tried sudo
rm /var/lib/dpkg/lock and it unlocked.

I retried: sudo dpkg --configure -a

The installation resumed. I hope that grub installed properly. I have
not re-booted. Fun.

Lesson: upgrades mostly work, but can get messy. Do not give up.
Google if you cannot remember what I tried. Kubuntu 12.10 is great,
BTW. So is Ubuntu 12.10. I have been running it on another partition,
but now have it on my every day partition.