External Monitor Resolution doesn't go above 1024x768

I am trying to use a 24" external monitor as the primary monitor for my Asus EEE netbook. When I connect it, it works properly, except the max resolution available is 1024x768. Usually, I'd go into the xorg.conf and add it, but 10.10 doesn't seem to have an xorg.conf. I read on another question here that I could simply go into recovery mode and make one using X -configure and moving the new xorg.conf into /X11/ but that caused X to not even start. I renamed xorg.conf to a temp name for now.

What should I be trying? Thanks!

Type:

cvt 1280 1024 60

Will see something like:

Modeline "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync

Copy this line except for the Modeline part

Pass this copied text to xrandr --newmode like this:

xrandr --newmode "1280x1024_60.00" 109.00 1280 1368 1496 1712 1024 1027 1034 1063 -hsync +vsync

Add the new mode to the proper device (in my case, VGA1. Find this via xrandr)

xrandr --addmode VGA1 "1280x1024_60.00"

You will now see the new resolution on the resolution options.

I wrote a more detailed tutorial here: http://shanereustle.com/blog/force-screen-resolutions-on-ubuntu/