Here is a perfect example of where users who are new to Ubuntu will get frustrated with Linux. I have a Microsoft IntelliMouse, with Back and Forward buttons, and a scrollwheel. Unfortunately, the Back and Forward buttons don't work in Ubuntu “out of the box” — you have to make quite a few adjustments to get it to work.
So let's roll up our sleeves, and get to work. First, you'll need to install the imwheel package.
$ sudo aptitude install imwheel
You'll be editing the xorg.conf file, so your next step should be to make a backup of it (in case you mess things up, and need to restore it), as outlined in the X Window Configuration page. Then you can start editing it.
$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Look for the “InputDevice” section that currently exists for your mouse, and edit it to look like the following:
Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Buttons" "7"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection
Unfortunately, depending on the mouse you have, this may look different. For example, you might change the Buttons option to 9, instead of 7, for some mice.
You can now save the file, and close gedit.
Now you have to edit imwheel's configuration file, to tell it to start when X does. Edit the file in gedit:
$ sudo gedit /etc/X11/imwheel/startup.conf
Find the line of code that looks like this:
IMWHEEL_START=0
Change the 0 to a 1, to have imwheel start when X does.
Finally, look for a line at the end of the file, which is commented out, which looks like the following:
#IMWHEEL_PARAMS='-b "0 0 8 9"'
Uncomment the line — by which I mean remove the # from the beginning of it.
IMWHEEL_PARAMS='-b "0 0 8 9"'
Save the file, and close gedit.
That should be it. You can now restart X, to see if the changes work, by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.