External Monitor on laptop

[jbk]

How do I utilize an external monitor on a laptop?

I have Fc4 running on the laptop which has and LCD w/ max 
800x600 Res.

I have a modern multi sync monitor (CRT) with at least 
1280x1024 Res possible.

The Bios is setup to detect and switch to the external, non 
dual monitor mode. This is what I want.

When I boot, the monitor is detected and the text mode data 
is printed to the screen, but the grub graphical boot loader 
does not and the boot hangs with a kernel panic immediately 
after executing init. It complains about not syncing.

What do I need to do to get this working?

Jim