I've successfully install Ubuntu 11.10 Desktop (x86) on an old(er) laptop that unfortunately has a broken screen, so there is an external monitor plugged in. On the livecd it come up on the secondary display just fine and I was able to install ubuntu and everything.

Unfortunately when I reboot into Ubuntu proper now, the secondary display is off and I'm literally driving blind here trying to switch it to the secondary display.

Using Nvidia open source drivers.

Things I've tried:

• Rebooting back into livecd, mounting the partition and trying in vain to find a config file (it uses the open source drivers so no Xorg.conf I could edit manually)

• Trying to blind-type xrandr settings into what I hope is terminal:

  xrandr --output VGA1 --auto

(nothing happened)

• Trying to blind install openssh-server so I could ssh into it and maybe configure it from my working computer. For some reason though, no luck.

Ubuntu really should default to expanding to all screens for this use case.