Ubuntu Maverick wont work with the external speakers

Assuming your card (and driver) supports it, you probably just need to disable display mirroring and/or enable a large virtual desktop space instead. Intel cards are usually well supported, so it should work. Use the official intel drivers, and try xrandr, if you get stuck.

You can try setting your resolution to the desired level manually.

First, run this command, changing the example 1920x1080 resolution to the resolution you want:

cvt 1920 1080

That will spew out something like this:

# 1920x1080 59.96 Hz (CVT 2.07M9) hsync: 67.16 kHz; pclk: 173.00 MHz
Modeline "1920x1080_60.00"  173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120 -hsync +vsync

We're only interested in the chunk after the quotes and before the -hsync, e.g.

173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120

Use that in the next command to add a graphics mode:

xrandr --newmode clever_name 173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120

Now, add your new mode to your VGA output:

xrandr --addmode VGA1 clever_name

Finally, switch your VGA monitor to use it:

xrandr --output VGA1 --mode clever_name

Now that that works, you can make it take effect every time you log in. To do so, create the following files somewhere:

fix-resolution.sh with what is called a shebang line and then the last three commands you ran that got it working before, e.g.:

#!/bin/sh
xrandr --newmode clever_name 173.00  1920 2048 2248 2576  1080 1083 1088 1120
xrandr --addmode VGA1 clever_name
xrandr --output VGA1 --mode clever_name

fix-resolution.desktop with the following contents:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=fix resolution
Exec=/usr/bin/local/fix-resolution.sh

Now, copy the files to the appropriate places on your hard drive and make the script executable. From a terminal:

cp fix-resolution.sh /usr/local/bin
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fix-resolution.sh
cp fix-resolution.desktop /etc/xdg/autostart

This will run the commands that force your monitor to the proper resolution every time someone logs into your computer.