Setting up a second monitor

[Antony Gelberg]

Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
> Hi, I'm a fairly new user of Ubuntu and completely new to Linux. 
> Although I have been using computers for over 35 years, I am not a 
> programmer, just a user. :-)
> 
> I am using 5.10 (Breezy?) on a dual-boot Dell Inspiron 510m laptop. I 
> want to use a second monitor as an extension of the desktop. Is this 
> possible? At the moment the second monitor is not displaying anything 
> (no signal at all), and I don't know where to start.
> 
> This setup works fine under Windows, so I know the hardware is 
> compatible. I'm just clueless about setting up the software. If this is 
> written up in the documentation somewhere, a pointer to the right place 
> would be fine. I'm a bit daunted by the volume of available information.

You need xinerama.  This should help for starters. 
http://www.paralipsis.org/2006/01/enabling-xinerama-in-ubuntu/

NB The man command works for many config files as well as programs. 
Hence you may wish to peruse man xorg.conf.