Yesterday I plugged in an external monitor to my laptop when it was running Ubuntu 8.10. It didn’t pick up the external monitor 
I did some digging this morning, and it might not solve the problem, but it seems like a super-cool application anyway :
If you have an external monitor or projector you occasionally attach to a notebook computer, you might be used to switching resolutions on a regular basis. Unlike with Windows, this isn’t just a right-click procedure—you must navigate the System —> Preferences menu.
A good solution is to use Synaptic to search for and install resapplet. For some reason, although it’s officially a GNOME applet, resapplet doesn’t appear on the standard applet list. Instead, it must be configured to start at login. To do this, click System —> Preferences —> Sessions, ensure the Startup Programs tab is selected, and click the Add button. In the Name and Command fields of the dialog box that appears, type resapplet. Leave the Comment field blank. Then close the dialog box, and log out and back in again.
You -can- just press Alt-F2 and run the applet from there, and it does indeed sit next to the network activity icon in the system tray type area.
