Agust, thanks for the help but I still have a small problem.
"deb
http://e17.dunnewind.net/ubuntu hardy e17"
was in the sources.list but I overlooked it. But; it is down and has been down since I installed OpenGEU. I guess that is a known problem? it also claims to be unverified.
The answer I was looking for, without knowing it, to question number one was:
sudo xmodmap -e "pointer = 3 2 1"
Your suggestion allows one to set all sorts of things, but not to simply swap the left and right mouse buttons.
Damn nice distro!
Thanks for your help.