I too am a newbie to Ubuntu. I too have Logitech keyboard and mouse.
The original wireless keyboard and mouse worked right from the start
with no searching for drivers or anything else. Since then the mouse
died of over use so I replace it with a logitech optical mouse (same
keyboard) with a usb connection (actually this was made for a laptop).
The mouse worked like it was original equipment on Ubuntu, however WinXp
grumbled for a few minutes until it accepted it.