I see the GRUB menu, then it goes to an inactive black screen. If I select recovery then resume, it works fine. As this is supposed to be a remote machine, the problem defeats the purpose. I've heard this is usually a GPU drivers issue, so I followed the suggestions here: https://documentation.ubuntu.com/server/how-to/graphics/install-nvidia-drivers/index.html

and here (I'm running 22.04 and can't update, separate issue though): https://askubuntu.com/questions/760934/graphics-issues-after-while-installing-ubuntu-16-04-16-10-with-nvidia-graphics

Yet I still have the problem with a black screen. While I'd like it to "just work", I'm also open to extreme measures including...

-removing the GPU (assuming that would help) -having a script run that auto-selects recovery then resume then logs in on my behalf (I'd need help figuring that out though)

I also updated the grub file after adding "nomodeset", that didn't fix it either.