Ubuntu 10.10 and the Asus Eee Keyboard

I got this wonderful keyboard and mouse combo from my wife from Christmas. I was very happy to get it because it’s very quiet, has the chicklet style keys, and it doesn’t have that annoying number pad. But then it - more precisely, the right side of the keyboard - stopped working.

I was planning on sending it back to Asus, but then I ran across a solution while looking for something completely different. You see, I have an Asus laptop, but the number pad didn't seem to work. After a quick Google, I ran across this thread on the ubuntu forums: http://ubuntu-ky.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9938431.

Following the advice on response #3 (quoted below) my number pad started working. Just for giggles, I plugged in the Eee keyboard and lo and behold, it was working too. 

1. System -> Preferences -> Assistive technologies
2. click “keyboard accessibility”
3. go to the tab “mouse keys”
4. uncheck “pointer can be controlled using keypad”

Here’s the screenshot of the control panel. Y’know, just in case:

Hope this helps someone and saves you so pain and suffering on customer support.