wireless keyboard

I also have a Microsoft Wireless keyboard: model 1000 (and 2000 for mouse). Which is your model ?
Can you plug keyboard, wait a little and run command "lsusb". E.g. I get:
delance@delance-desktop:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 045e:00f9 Microsoft Corp. Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:0111 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. Card Reader
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Can you also give the output of:

lsb_release -a; uname -a

My keyboard is a Microsoft Wireless 6000 v3.0
I don't have a clue about running commands or what you are asking for. I know very little about computers except how to use the software and internet.

Start a terminal with the keys all together Ctrl-Alt-t or select the menu item Applications/accessories/terminal.
then type exactly (or better yet, cut and paste from these messages the commands requested:
lsusb
lsb_release -a
uname -a
Then cut and paste the output back here.

patterson@ubuntu:~$ lsusb
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 03f0:c302 Hewlett-Packard DeskJet D2300
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 045e:071d Microsoft Corp.
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
patterson@ubuntu:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS
Release: 10.04
Codename: lucid
patterson@ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.32-29-generic #58-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 11 19:00:09 UTC 2011 i686 GNU/Linux
patterson@ubuntu:~$

ok if you run:

xev

and press the buttons which are inactive, do they generate events?

KeyRelease event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001,
    root 0x101, subw 0x4800002, time 33578681, (26,50), root:(705,100),
    state 0x10, keycode 87 (keysym 0xffb1, KP_1), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (31) "1"
    XFilterEvent returns: False

MotionNotify event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001,
    root 0x101, subw 0x4800002, time 33580513, (26,51), root:(705,101),
    state 0x10, is_hint 0, same_screen YES

MotionNotify event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001,
    root 0x101, subw 0x4800002, time 33580513, (26,51), root:(705,101),
    state 0x10, is_hint 0, same_screen YES

MotionNotify event, serial 36, synthetic NO, window 0x4800001,

What did you press (and what order) to generate those?

I pressed the numbers on the number pad starting with "1" all through "9" and then hit "Num Lock".

thanks for trying