Ubuntu installation on MacBookPro

Brightness controls doesn't work on a MacBook Pro 5.5 (ubuntu 12.04 LTS)

if you want the nvidia driver, type in the terminal sudo apt-get install nvidia-current. After installing the driver, you'll need to enable brightness controls in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
In /etc/X11/xorg.conf you should put:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce"
Driver "nvidia"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

"Identifier" is not so important unless you have other stuff referring to this device in your conf file. You can replace with more appropriate name if it's not an Nvidia GeForce type card. Everything else must be as written; "NoLogo" is to avoid the annoying Nvidia splash screen.
To edit the file using a GUI text editor, type gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf in the terminal. Save changes and reboot... if all went well, you will now be using the new driver and brightness controls will work! If it doesn't work, you can check if you're using the new driver by typing in the terminal lspci -v | grep -i -A 15 vga. You should get something like:

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 08a3 (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
[some lines omitted....]
Kernel driver in use: nvidia
Kernel modules: nvidia_current, nouveau, nvidiafb

Kernel drive in use should be nvidia, not nouveau.
From http://askubuntu.com/questions/126441/brightness-controls-doesnt-work-on-a-macbook-pro-5-5-ubuntu-12-04-lts

How to fix MacBook Pro touchpad on Ubuntu 14.04

I spend few long hours to try to fix default crappy touchpad behavior, before finally I got to this.

3 easy steps:

1. Install
   sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-mtrack

2. Change the setting at the bottom of configuration,
   sudo vi /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-synaptics.conf

my added settings are:

Section "InputClass"
        MatchIsTouchpad "on"
        Identifier      "Touchpads"
        Driver          "mtrack"
        Option          "Sensitivity" "0.95"
        Option          "FingerHigh" "12"
        Option          "FingerLow" "1"
        Option          "IgnoreThumb" "true"
        Option          "IgnorePalm" "true"
        Option          "TapButton1" "0"
        Option          "TapButton2" "0"
        Option          "TapButton3" "0"
        Option          "TapButton4" "0"
        Option          "ClickFinger1" "1"
        Option          "ClickFinger2" "3"
        Option          "ClickFinger3" "3"
        Option          "ButtonMoveEmulate" "false"
        Option          "ButtonIntegrated" "true"
        Option          "ClickTime" "25"
        Option          "BottomEdge" "25"
        Option          "SwipeLeftButton" "8"
        Option          "SwipeRightButton" "9"
        Option          "SwipeUpButton" "0"
        Option          "SwipeDownButton" "0"
        Option          "ScrollDistance" "75"
        Option          "ScrollUpButton" "5"
        Option          "ScrollDownButton" "4"
EndSection

note ScrollUpButton/ScrollDownButton - changed to default apple like behavior ("natural");

3.restart and enjoy:
sudo restart lightdm