Comment 6 for bug 465318

I have the same problem with an Acer Travelmate notebook, 15' laptop screen (1024x768 ) and a external 19' Benq (1280x1024) and a clean Ubuntu 9.10 install.

Using the system/preferences/screen menu I can use one or the other, or even both (but cloned, not extended), if i try to get them working as extended everything crashes (well, apps are still working as rhythmbox keeps playing, but no keyboard nor mouse, black screen and can't get to console through Ctrl+Alt+F1) so i need to do a hard reboot.

#lspci | grep -e VGA -e Display
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

#xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2304 x 1024, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 376mm x 301mm
   1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
   1152x864 75.0
   1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3
   640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
   720x400 70.1
LVDS1 connected 1024x768+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 304mm x 228mm
   1024x768 60.0 + 85.0 75.0* 70.1 60.0
   832x624 74.6
   800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
   640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
   720x400 85.0
   640x400 85.1
   640x350 85.1
TV1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)