I have been cursing Linux and specifically Ubuntu’s lack of out of the box Dual View support for some time now. I am using an older computer, a Dell Latitude 120L. The Latitude is a nice computer and served me well as a windows machine before converting it to Ubuntu about 6 months ago. I have been very happy with Linux with the one exception of Dual View support. On a Mac or Windows machine, you plug in the second monitor and presto you have a dual view setup (well on the Mac it is more like hey it just works and Windows you have to poke around with displays but it worked).
Fast forward and I am taking my 4th or 5th attempt at getting this to work and find a package called RandR. You install this using the command:
sudo apt-get install gnome-randr-applet
Then I ran it by just typing
xrandr
Presto, it detected the displays and set them up correctly with Dual View.
Now I am sure there is a console plug-in somewhere. But in the past when I tried to use the built in screen manager I would just hang my system, have a mouse but no screens. This time presto it detects my displays and setups dual display. I am happy with Linux again.
