I recently upgraded from Linux Mint 7 (based on ubuntu 9.04) to Mint 8 (based on 9.10), losing my dual monitor setup in the process. I have the gnome panel set on the large screen (DVI1), with the small 15″ VGA-connected monitor displaying a status page to its right.

In order to get the panel to display on the DVI display again (karmic put it on the 15″ vga one), I found the following command after a bit of googling:

xrandr --output DVI1 --mode 1680x1050 --output DVI1 --primary --left-of VGA1 --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768


The “–primary” option seems to have been the key to get karmic to recognize the bigger monitor again.