Comment 19 for bug 1157643

Same problem here. Found this error while doing a regular upgrade.

...
Setting up procps (1:3.2.8-11ubuntu6.1) ...
start: Job failed to start
invoke-rc.d: initscript procps, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing procps (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 procps
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

$lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Release: 12.04

Not sure if 100% related from the 8 server I tried to upgrade only two failed. This two servers are the only ones where I've tune vm.overcommit_memory creating "10-vm.overcommit_memory.conf" with "vm.overcommit_memory = 1".

/var/log/upstart/procps.log contains several "error: "Invalid argument" setting key "vm.overcommit_memory"