I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 with Openbox on my laptop. Since I need to plug different external displays into it and Openbox environment doesn't automatically pick them up, I thought the best solution I can come up with is to use gnome-control-center and it's display settings tool from within Openbox. But although this tool does detect monitors correctly, it can't do any change -- clicking Apply button just doesn't seem to do anything.

So my questions are: 1) how to get this tool working? 2) how to run "Displays" tool directly from command-line, skipping control center? 3) is there a better way to automatically detect and set resolutions on internal/external monitors under Openbox?

Please note I tried arandr too and it doesn't even work for my environment (doesn't detect external display plugging in at all). For what it's worth, my laptop is Lenovo G560, Ubuntu is x64 version with all the updates rolled over. Thanks for your consideration.