Okay, linux noob. I installed 10.04 on an old Dell 700m in hopes of using it as a media center device. That seems to work great, except now it won't output to the external monitor. VGA cable works fine, TV recognizes other computers fine, it's the laptop that won't output.

Turns out that the 700m, unlike every other computer out there, doesn't have a Fn hotkey to switch monitors. The only way to do it in Windows was to go through the Control Panel. In Ubuntu, though, the Monitor setup won't detect or recognize any monitors. The laptop display works fine, but I can't adjust or add anything.

I did a little research and found suggestions for older Ubuntu builds involving the xorg.conf. I tried one out, in spite of my unfamiliarity, and it's screwed the whole display big time. I can fix that with a clean reinstall, that's no problem, but I'm cautious about editing xorg again. Any suggestions? Thank you!