I don't know how frowned upon it is here to post two questions in one thread, but I'll do it anyway and see if I catch any guff for it.

Firstly, I'm trying to get Ubuntu 12.10 to boot via EFI so I can use the intel graphics and get some decent battery life. I'm trying to follow https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFIBooting , I've got grub to show up and start from rEFInd, but I'm lost at configuring it. I've tried to follow the instructions, but I always end up with a bunch of errors saying grub cannot find any of the commands I've put in, and that I need to load the kernel. I don't have basically zero experience with bootloaders. The most I've done is configure an Arch install to boot (via EFI), but those were extremely well written instructions, and I honestly could not tell you off the top of my head what I did. This is the main thing I want to figure out.

Secondly, the trackpad behavior is quite different in Ubuntu than it is in OS X. This laptop has one of the new glass trackpads that integrates the button into the surface, because of this Ubuntu sees my thumb resting on the bottom of the trackpad as a finger and therefore I cannot comfortably use the trackpad (in OS X I treat the bottom of the trackpad as a physical button and rest my thumb on it). The way Ubuntu behaves also makes for more difficult dragging. Is there anyway to get the trackpad to behave more like it does in OS X. I understand that the acceleration is completely different between the two OSs and cannot be emulated, but that's OK, I just would like to be able to not have to change the way I use my hand.

Thanks a lot for your help, the Ubuntu community is by far one of the best that exist, especially to n00bs