External Monitor issues, Extended Desktop, Hardy Heron

Has anyone had any success in getting a secondary attached monitor to display an extended desktop under Hardy or Ibex?
I've been trying to get the netbook to display at 1024x600 with the external at any of 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, or any other typical/standard resolution. I suspect this is more of a problem with the Intel 945 / GMA 950 compatibility with Ubuntu, as I can do anything I please with the external display under Vista or XP off the Aspire One. Any suggestions on getting it to work?

The best I've succeeded in getting through xrandr, xorg.conf, Screen and Graphics, or Screen Resolutions settings manipulation is either
a) a bad clone with either a ton of blackspace on the externak
b) a bad clone with the desktop sized greater than the netbook monitor
c) a bad extended desktop that sometimes works, rarely boots, and where windows maximize into both screens at once.

Ideally the Screen Resolutions app would handle all the necessary configuration, but that doesn't really happen as well as it should, especially with this particular chipset (across many builds and manufacturers). Manipulating xorg to give a 2048x2048 max virtual resolution and xrandr to place and move the displays works, but sometimes creates problems with subsequent boots.

If anyone has gotten an external display to work under Ubuntu under either Hardy or Intrepid, I'd appreciate hearing about it since there's a certain amount of work that I'd like to do on the netbook but can't due to the screen size limitations (mostly light GIMP/graphics editing).