lightum - MacBook automatic keyboard brightness daemon
(c)2011 Pau Oliva Fora - pof[at]eslack(.)org

lightum is a daemon to control the keyboard brightness on MacBook laptops.

By default it will run in "auto" mode, this means it will read data from the
ambient light sensor and automatically illuminate the keyboard in low light.
It will also turn off the keyboard brightness when the computer is not used for
10 seconds.

If you choose to run it in "manual" mode, it will not query the ambient light
sensor, but instead it will use the brightness value you set manually using the
function keys (F5/F6).

When first launched lightum will create a configuration file in the folder
~/.config/lightum/lightum.conf, inside the user's home directory with the
default configuration values. When launched without parameters, lightum will
read the configuration from this config file, but the configuration values can
be overwritten via the command line:

Usage:  lightum [-m value] [-p value] [-i value] [-x] [-s] [-f] [-v]
     -m 4..255 : maximum brightness value in auto mode (default=255)
     -n 0..3   : minimum brightness value in auto mode (default=0)
     -p num    : number of milliseconds between light sensor polls (default=300)
     -i num    : power off keyboard light on session idle seconds (0 to disable)
     -x        : manual mode (will honor the brightness value set with Fn keys)
     -s        : power off keyboard light when screen saver is active
     -f        : run in foreground (do not daemonize)
     -v        : verbose mode, useful for debugging with -f

Official Ubuntu packages are available in poliva/lightum-mba ppa:

     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:poliva/lightum-mba
     sudo apt-get update
     sudo apt-get install lightum

Enjoy! :)