[lug] multi-monitor question - hw part

[Davide Del Vento]

Hi,
I have a (Dell) docking station for my laptop and the docking station
has dual output (DVI & VGA). I'd love to have two monitors at the same
time, and Ubuntu (Hardy) should support that: in fact, I get kind of
what I want using the laptop screen (not exactly, but that is the sw
part of the question I'll get to if I get to figure out the hw part).

Now, if I hook two monitors and turn both on before boot, only the DVI
one gets used. Nothing helps the "detect display" button on the
"screen resolution" application in system->preferences. Note that the
same thing (when only a single monitor is hooked) shows the laptop
display as mentioned above (with some glitches, but I can "see
something" on both the laptop display and the other, external screen).
With two external monitors, the VGA one looks dead.
But it's not: if I keep the DVI monitor off, the VGA one is used.

CTRL-ALT-Fn ttys always work and stay on the only monitor that's being
used for X (it'll be clear from the next sentence why this is
relevant).

Now, if I turn the DVI monitor on during the boot process, but before
X starts, the VGA monitor gets used until X login. Now, in this
"setup" X works on the DVI, whereas CTRL-ALT-Fn ttys appear on the
VGA. Nothing changes in the in system->preferences->screen resolution

The instruction manual of the docking station does not say anything
besides that the two VGA and DVI connectors exist (technically, it
doesn't even say that you can hook a monitor: if they were internally
unwired the manual would be correct - do they wonder why nobody reads
the instruction manuals?)

Question: do you think what I want to accomplish is hw-impossible? I
mean, I verified that both VGA and DVI stacks (video card, cables and
monitors) work, but why they cannot be on at the same time as one
external monitor and the laptop screen can? I know, I could use the
laptop screen as "second monitor", but that's a 13" so it's useless
(I'm trying to get two 22").

Or do you think it is just a software issue, since the
system->preferences->screen resolution gets confused? In fact, when I
have the two monitors, it does show only one (with some hints that
there might be another "behind", but no way to set it up, unlike in
the laptop+only_one_external setup).

Has anybody succeeded in something similar (even without the docking
station)? If so, can you recommend the distro, so that I can try it
live and see if it changes anything (I think that the "live" option
for the various distro has been one of the best innovations in OS
ever).

Thanks a lot
Davide