hmm, neither method worked for me unfortunatley. I still don't get the option for 1280x800 when I run system-config-display.
can u post you xorg.conf? at least monitor, screen, and device (with your video adapter) sections.
My laptop never works with the system-config-display tool (1440x900), and I have a feeling it's because the laptop monitor is sending incorrect info to the X server. You may have to set a custom modeline (and possibly instruct X not to listen to the monitor's info).
For the modeline, in a terminal type:
gtf 1280 800 60
This should result in something like:
Modeline "1280x800_60.00" 83.46 1280 1344 1480 1680 800 801 804 828 -HSync +Vsync
Paste the output of this command (as a single line) into your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file under the "Monitor" section. You should also rename the modeline from "1280x800_60.00" to "1280x800".
Next, you'll need to add "1280x800" to each of the subsections under the "Screen" section.
If this alone doesn't work, you may also want to try adding this line to the Monitor section:
Option "IgnoreEDID" "1"
I hope this helps.
Aloha -- Chris Stark Musician, Linux User, & Grad Student http://chrisstark.com/