ATI Radeon Mobility FireGL 9000 - will it work?

[Ed Smits]

I've installed Ubuntu 6, kernel 2.6.15-27-386, on a Dell Latitude D600
laptop that is normally attached to a docking station and 20" LCD
monitor. I need to be able to run my resolution at 1600x1200 when
docked.

Somewhere (and I forget where in the ubuntu web site) someone said it
worked - he loaded the proprietary ATI drivers and uses the ATI panel
to switch resolutions between external LCD and laptop. I've installed
the ATI driver, seems to be OK, I can CTRL + ALT + +/- between
resolutions, however the best I can get is 1024x768.

My Gnome Screen Resolution control panel shows just 3 resolutions,
1024x768, 800x600, 640x480, why aren't the higher resolutions showing
up? My xorg.conf file lists all starting from 1600x1200 down to
640x480.

Specific questions:

1) anyone know what I'm doing wrong and can point me in the right direction?
2) how do you use the ATI panel to switch between resolutions? What do
you set it at - clone, single etc. The restart of X doesn't concern
me, I use the laptop screen itself rarely
3) what exactly does glxgears tell us? The gears are turning awfully
slowly, compared to what I've seen before
4) If, as I suspect, the ATI driver isn't all that good, is it
possible to do what I'm trying to do using the drivers that come with
Ubuntu instead?

I don't care about all the flashy 3D effects, compiz or whatever, all
I want is fairly fast and high resolution.

Thanks and I hope someone out there can be of help, I'm getting very
frustrated with this card.

Ed
Burlington, Canada