Dell XPS won't recognize single HDMI external monitor

[sal02452]

I have a Dell XPS laptop that dual-boots Windows 7 and XUbuntu 11.10. The Windows Device Manager lists the display adapters as "NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M" and "Intel(R) HD Graphics". I get the impression that this means that the laptop uses "Optimus" (?) and I get the impression that Optimus is not supported under Linux. But I tried anyway. From the XUbuntu "Additional Drivers" screen, I tried to use both the "Nvidia (recommended)" driver and the "Nvidia (post-updates)" driver. Also, I tried a Linux driver that I downloaded from www.geforce.com. None of them worked. So I guess I'm using the un-accelerated (?) X server.

The laptop doesn't have VGA out, just HDMI out. I want to use a single external monitor. I don't need the laptop screen to be on while using the external monitor. Under Windows, the external screen works fine. But Linux doesn't recognize it. In the XUbuntu "Display" panel, the only screen it lists is "Laptop".

Do I have any hope of using an external monitor with this laptop?

[scody311]

this is funny,
I have the EXACT problem, with the exact machine.

Hopefully we can get an answer

[mf-linux]

Same problem here. I've tried ubuntu 11.10 and Mint 12.