I have a dual monitor setup with my laptop and an external Asus monitor running under Ubuntu 11.10. When I first started using Ubuntu, it synced both screens. What showed up on my laptop showed up on my eternal monitor.

Last night, I accidentally knocked the HDMI cable from its port (not that unusual in the tight space I work in). When I plugged it back in, as usual, the external monitor only displayed my wallpaper. Usually, I just restart Ubuntu and it resets, but last night what I now realize was the display console came up and somehow I changed the setup. Now the two screens show different jobs so to speak. Also, the external monitor doesn't display the ribbon, making switching between Firefox tabs and windows or apps jarring.

I write for a living and need to quickly check bits of research, notes or sources while writing and the extra switching between mouse pad and external mouse to get one or the other screen to respond interrupts my work flow. The only technical help I can offer is when the display console popped up, the graphical representation of the screens was that the external screen appeared layered over by about one-quarter of the laptop screen. Again, these were icons. I tried to replicate that after I obviously screwed things up.

If someone could help. I would appreciate it. If I have to use terminal, that's fine. I started using computers for writing back when they were green DOS prompts. There's a certain elegance to prompt commands to me. Maybe it's the writer in me. Again, if anyone can help me return my screens to sync under Ubuntu 11.10, I would greatly appreciate it.