Acer TravelMate7720 keyboard problems

[stazz]

I have an Acer TravelMate 7720.
Kernel version: linux-2.6.25-gentoo-r7

Problem 1:
The numeric keypad is dead. I don't get any events from those keys from xev. I have tried enabled everything I can think of in the kernel, individually and in combination, to no avail:

-Acer WMI Laptop Extras
-x86 Wistron laptop button interface
-x86 Atlas button interface (don't know what this is, but I was out of other options...)

I'd really like to get those keys working, so any advice would be greatly appreciated

Problem 2:
The LCD brightness control keys are not hardware controls - they generate key events in xev and even type symbols in the console. I could easily xmodmap those keys if needed and keybind them in fvwm to run whatever command is needed to adjust the screen brightness. However, I'm not sure what command/tool I need to do that. The laptop has an ATI Radeon HD card, and I'm using the ati-drivers. Oh, and I don't see anything that looks relevant in /proc/acpi/

If someone could point me in the right direction, that would be really great.

Thanks!