Ubuntu and screen resolution and MIT

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

Apparently the new overhead projectors at MIT have problems with Linux,
but that is for a future discussion.
Last night, to get my display to work on the overhead, I changed the
resolution several times, and I am unable to restore my previous
resolution through the Display Preferences GUI. My previous resolution
was 1400x1050 60Hz. The Display Preferences wizard only gives me
1280x768. Fortunately my previous xorg.conf was saved, so I was able to
recover my previous settings, so my question is more rhetorical. After
copying my previous xorg.conf.2009.... file to xorg.conf, and restarting
the GUI the Display Preferences wizard now shows 1400x1050(4:3) 60Hz and
my screen resolution is back to normal.

While I generally know what I am doing under the covers, how would a
normal user be able to recover from a situation like last night where I
was trying to see if the overhead would work with my system.  In this
case my laptop is running Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846