Steve,

I was able to install Ubuntu 17.04 within a VirtualBox 5.20.0 environment and indeed the bug stands instantiated by that variant of Ubuntu as well. Moreover, using the same boot into recovery mode, enter the password in textual mode and effectuating a "resume boot" seems to work to bring up both 17.04 as well as 17.10 variants of Ubuntu.

The script as follows hereupon was executed on both 17.04 and 17.10, thereafter the output from 17.04 and 17.10 is provided herein below.

Script:
lspci | grep VGA;
lsmod | grep "kms\|drm";
find /dev -group video;
cat /proc/cmdline;
[[ -d /etc/modprobe.d ]] && find /etc/modprobe.d/;
if stat /etc/modprobe.d/*kms* 1>/dev/null 2>/dev/null;
then
	cat /etc/modprobe.d/*kms*;
else
	echo "No kms files in /etc/modprobe.d directory.";
fi;
[[ -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf ]] && ls /etc/X11/xorg.conf;
[[ $(type -P glxinfo) ]] && glxinfo | grep -Ei "vendor|rendering";
[[ -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log ]] && grep LoadModule /var/log/Xorg.0.log

17.04 output:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
drm_kms_helper        151552  0
drm                   352256  2 ttm,drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt              16384  1 drm_kms_helper
/dev/fb0
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.10.0-37-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
/etc/modprobe.d/
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/intel-microcode-blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/mlx4.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rare-network.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
No kms files in /etc/modprobe.d directory.
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
client glx vendor string: Mesa Project and SGI
    Vendor: VMware, Inc. (0xffffffff)
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
[    27.658] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    27.971] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    27.972] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    27.983] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[    27.995] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[    28.003] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    28.003] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    28.003] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[    28.003] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[    28.007] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[    28.023] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[    28.026] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[    28.962] (II) LoadModule: "libinput"

17.10 output:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
drm_kms_helper        167936  0
drm                   356352  2 ttm,drm_kms_helper
fb_sys_fops            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect            16384  1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt              16384  1 drm_kms_helper
/dev/fb0
BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.13.0-16-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-root ro recovery nomodeset
/etc/modprobe.d/
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-rare-network.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/mlx4.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-firewire.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-framebuffer.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/intel-microcode-blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-modem.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-oss.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-ath_pci.conf
No kms files in /etc/modprobe.d directory.
[    34.509] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[    34.571] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    34.575] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    34.585] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[    34.593] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[    34.606] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    34.606] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[    34.606] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[    34.606] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[    34.608] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[    34.610] (II) LoadModule: "fb"
[    34.612] (II) LoadModule: "shadow"
[    35.675] (II) LoadModule: "libinput"

Thank you for your assistance.

Stuart