Microsoft Remote Keyboard Attempts

I recently bought the new Microsoft Remote Keyboard (IR) and i am trying to 
get it to work with LIRC(0.8.0).  I have done just about everything I could 
find to get this working and I think it is time to ask for some help.  

First off, if you don't know what I am talking about, it looks like this:
http://images.tomshardware.com/2005/08/15/microsoft_mce_keyboard/ms_keyboard_mce_1.jpg

The keyboard is designed to work with the MCE IR receiver, in windows of 
course.  Out of the box, some of the buttons work on this keyboard when using 
mceusb2 driver and lircd.conf.mceusb.  The buttons on the left and right hand 
side work exactly like the keys on the MCE remote.  Not too surprising since 
they are the same buttons as on the remote.  

However, everything else doesn't, i.e. letters, numbers, ctrl, shift, F1..etc.  
We won't even go into the built in mouse.  That is for another day.

Here is a list of things I have tried, with attached logs etc.  Sorry for the 
length, but I wanted to be thorough.

------------------------------

First off, I compiled and ran lircd in debug mode to get some extra output
  lircd -D5

-------------------------------

Then tried filling in the empty ranges in the lircd.conf.mceusb (see attached 
lircd.conf.empties) and ran irw to see if anything came up for the missing 
keys.  Maybe it is just this easy?.....Nope.

-------------------------------

Then I tried looking at the lircd log when in debug mode (lircd -D5), using 
the original lircd.conf.mceusb.  I ran irw and hit the 'A' key twice on the 
keyboard.  The log is attached (lircd_A.log).  I also ran mode2 for hitting 
the A key twice, the output is in mode2_A.log.  These logs don't mean 
anything to me, so i moved on...

-------------------------------

Tried running irrecord to append the original lirc.conf.mceusb file (irrecord 
lircd.conf.mceusb).  irrecord gets stuck looking for the toggle bit when I do 
this.

    Please press an arbitrary button repeatedly as fast as 
    possible (don't hold it down!).

    No toggle bit found.
    But I know for sure that RC6 has a toggle bit.
  
So I tried again, this time with (irrecord -F lircd.conf), it gets past the 
toggle bit, but outputs:

    Invalid toggle bit.
    min_repeat=1  

It continues and starts asking to hit keys to record.  When I hit the A key on 
the keyboard, I get a lot of output since debug mode is enabled, most of the 
output is attached (irrecord_A.log).  But the result is:

    Something went wrong.
    Please try again. (9 retries left)

--------------------------------

My final attempt was to make an entirely new .conf file. (irrecord 
keyboard.conf).  This time everything seemed to go smoothly, and i got a new 
conf file (attached as keyboard.conf).  But when I used it with lircd and 
irw, I get nothing.  I again hit the 'A' key twice and saved the lircd log 
(keyboardConf.log).

-------------------------------

So does anyone have any ideas to try next?  I am complete newbie to lirc, but 
do have programming experience, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

lircd.conf.empties
Description: Text document

mode2_A.log
Description: Text Data

irrecord_A.log
Description: Text Data

keyboard.conf
Description: Text document

lircd_A.log
Description: Text Data

keyboardConf.log
Description: Text Data