the first one is in a terminal do this
sudo gedit /etc/default/grub
change bottom line to this
GRUB_CMDLINE_
sudo update-grub
reboot
second one
1. Remove the 'nomodeset' hack from grub kernel loading parameter, now you cannot adjust backlight, for a while 
2. Restart system, open terminal and type this command:
~$ lspci | grep VGA
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
This number "00:02.0" is what you want to modify in the following script.
3. Copy the lines between the "###" mark, and save it as a file named something like 'backlight_d.sh', before saving, modify the number after pciset -s ##:##.# as the one you got from step 2
~$ gedit ./backlight_d.sh
################################################## ######
#!/bin/bash
old_b=9;
declare -i curr_b=240;
declare -i target_b=240;
while : ; do
b=`cat /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness`;
delay="0.5"
if [ $old_b != $b ]; then
old_b=$b
let "target_b=$b * 20 + 12"
#printf "Target: %10d\n" $target_b
fi
hex_b=".";
if [ "$curr_b" -lt "$target_b" ] ; then
let "curr_b=$curr_b + 2"
if [ "$curr_b" -gt "$target_b" ] ; then
let "curr_b=$target_b"
fi
hex_b="-"
elif [ "$curr_b" -gt "$target_b" ] ; then
let "curr_b=$curr_b - 2"
if [ "$curr_b" -lt "$target_b" ] ; then
let "curr_b=$target_b"
fi
hex_b="-"
fi
if [ $hex_b != "." ] ; then
hex_b=`printf "%02X" $curr_b`
delay="0.005"
setpci -s 00:02.0 F4.B=$hex_b
fi
sleep $delay
done
################################################## ######
4. Copy it to /etc (in root mode) and make executable
# sudo cp ./backlight_d.sh /etc/
# sudo chmod +x /etc/backlight_d.sh
5. Add it to rc.local
# sudo nano /etc/rc.local
Find the line 'exit 0', add BEFORE it:
################################################## ######
nohup /etc/backlight_d.sh &
################################################## ######
All done! Restart now and watch the backlight magically change
SAUCES:
