The screen properties crash was fixed for me several updates ago.
However, the screen resolution problem with multiple displays connected
persists, and is reproducible on my system with an Intel 965 display
adapter.  In fact, because I work with several different versions of
Linux, I can give some more information from two different perspectives
on this resolution problem.

First, what is supposed to happen, or be possible, when two displays are
connected at the same time?  It appears to me, from what I have seen and
read, there should be two configurations possible: either the two
displays are overlaid (mirrored), or they are separated into two
screens, with one border in common so that the user can move from one to
the other my simply moving the mouse past the common edge.  If there are
other possibilities, I am unaware of them.

In the first case, with the two screens mirrored, and assuming that they
have different resolution (my laptop display is 1280x800 and my external
display is 1280x1024), the important question is, what resolution is
chosen for the combined display?  Running Ubuntu 8.10 with the latest
updates and patches, it selects what appears to be the highest common
resolution, which is my case turns out to be 1024x768.  Although this
works, it is not a particularly good resolution for either of them, and
the result is not pleasing.  However, running Ubuntu 8.04.1 or Mandriva
2009.0, the resolution is set to 1280x1024 (the highest of the two), and
the image on the lower resolution display is simply clipped at the
bottom.  This produces a much more pleasing effect - in particular if
you keep in mind that if you are choosing a mirrored setup, you probably
don't want/need to see both displays, you are more likely going to close
the laptop case, and work only on the external monitor, in which case
you would prefer to get the full resolution (1280x1024) rather than the
reduced "common" resolution (1024x768).

In the second case, when the mirrored display is not selected, Ubuntu
8.10 works perfectly - it warns the user that the buffer size is
currently not large enough, it makes the change, and once the user has
restarted the X server (generally by logging out and back in), the
adjacent displays are nearly perfect.  The only problem I have seen with
this is that the trash can icon in the lower panel is misplaced, it
looks like it is at 1024 width rather than 1280.  The non-mirrored setup
did not work correctly at all with Ubuntu 8.04, if I recall correctly,
and although it works in Mandriva 2009.0, it requires that the user edit
the xorg.conf file manually, calculate the necessary virtual screen size
and enter those numbers in the appropriate places.

It is also worth noting that on Mandriva 2009.0, once the xorg.conf file
has been edited so that the non-mirrored setup works (which involves
overwriting the screen resolutions), the mirrored setup no longer works
correctly, it then starts to select 1024x768 as the mirrored resolution,
the same as Ubuntu 8.10.  I don't know if that gives any significant
hint as to where the problem might be.

Thanks again for looking into this.  If there is anything else I can do
or test, I am happy to help.

jw

** Attachment added: "Ubuntu 8.10 xorg.conf from my system (Intel 965GM)"
   http://launchpadlibrarian.net/18634579/xorg.Ubuntu

-- 
lenovo x200 incorrect resolution && gnome prop. crash SIGSEGV in strcmp()
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/277372
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