Ubuntu and Dell widescreen monitor

As they say in Linux world, research on the net first if it works with your gear before you put your money down. I had been thinking of buying a monitor to overcome the 14 inches of confinement i.e. my laptop screen. Recently Dell started a fantastic deal on their 23" widescreen lcd monitor (S2309W) for S$249! I mean thats the price at which I bought a 17" CRT 5 years ago - so I took the plunge (resulting in similar outcome) - without checking if there were any configuration guides/examples online. You pay one way or other :)

Ordered online, delivered within 4 days, connected everything - so far so good. Fired up my Ubuntu desktop and voila - the resolution was stuck at 1024x768! The google-reflex-action kicked-in immediately. After tons of searching and trawling the result was - no examples, no mention of any drivers for this one, nothing. The most dreaded option was staring at me - invoking the much-feared-vodoo of hand-editing Xorg.conf!

By then it was already 11PM and I had to go to work next morning. But I was desperate and was in one of those I'll-break-you-no-matter-what mood (a rare occurrence). Since X had to be bounced to check any changes, I had to do all incantations from the Console. So, I logged into the Console and at the primeval command line, opened the secret book:

man Xorg.conf

I started building the xorg.conf by hand, step by step - change configuration, kill X, login, check issues and repeat if not fixed. After countless tries and pushing it to one'clock, I bounced X and logged in.

Yeah! My widescreen display revealed its glorious-self at full resolution. I even managed to configure my laptop screen as an extended desktop. I don't care about gurus but I'll consider this an achievement :)

To ease the pain of those who may have to undertake a similar journey, here is my xorg.conf.