postinst.d from kernel-package fails - leaves package half-configured

Binary package hint: kernel-package

1) Natty
2) kernel-package 12.036+nmu1 from Natty repo
3) I expected to have an installable kernel, as I do with the kernel-package=12.036-~ppa from Brian Roger's PPA on Maverick.
4) During install of packages built with make-kpkg, postinst.d errors out and leaves package half-installed, unconfigurable; this of course messes up any future package installs by any means, and is a pain to resolve.

Leaves packages in this state:

locke@meijhana:/usr/src$ dpkg -l linux-image-2.6.39-locke-bfs-32bit-mk3
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=====================================-=====================================-==========================================================================================
iF linux-image-2.6.39-locke-bfs-32bit-mk 2.6.39-locke-bfs-32bit-mk3-10.00.Cust Linux kernel binary image for version 2.6.39-locke-bfs-32bit-mk3
locke@meijhana:/usr/src$

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: kernel-package 12.036+nmu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-7.39-generic 2.6.38
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-7-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon May 23 16:36:11 2011
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US:en
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: kernel-package
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-03-26 (58 days ago)