I'm going to guess that the keyboard driver or something is interfering with the evdev driver? Or you don't have proper evdev support in the kernel? Or is your xorg.conf telling X to use a different driver?
I don't have access to a Gentoo machine right now, but when I look at a similar machine (same exact keyboard though). I get this: $ egrep -i '(key|evdev)' /var/log/Xorg.0.log (II) Cannot locate a core keyboard device. (==) intel(0): video overlay key set to 0x101fe (II) Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD (II) LoadModule: "evdev" (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/input//evdev_drv.so (II) Module evdev: vendor="X.Org Foundation" (II) ThinkPad Extra Buttons: Found keys (II) ThinkPad Extra Buttons: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "ThinkPad Extra Buttons" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev" (II) Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1: Found keys (II) Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (II) config/hal: Adding input device AT Translated Set 2 keyboard (**) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: always reports core events (**) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Device: "/dev/input/event4" (II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Found keys (II) AT Translated Set 2 keyboard: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (II) Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1: Found keys (II) Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Microsft Microsoft Wireless Desktop Receiver 3.1" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (II) Sleep Button: Found keys (II) Sleep Button: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Sleep Button" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev" (II) Video Bus: Found keys (II) Video Bus: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Video Bus" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev" (II) Power Button: Found keys (II) Power Button: Configuring as keyboard (II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "Power Button" (type: KEYBOARD) (**) Option "xkb_rules" "evdev" (**) Option "xkb_model" "evdev" Not that it is XINPUT that is driving my keyboard, not Keyboard1. So I'm guessing it's the X config. Then again, it might be gpm. Are you using gpm? Maybe it's grabbing the keyboard and not letting X have it.
