All input devices randomly stop working

I kind of thought this would show up somewhere else, but I can't seem to find any threads similar to this issue.

I am using a Macbook Pro 5,3 and I am dual booting OSX 10.9 and Xubuntu 13.10. I just got my graphics card and my wireless card working, and I fixed an issue with the power off/reboot buttons. Just after the power/reboot fix, however, I've noticed that Xubuntu will randomly stop recognizing my input devices. All of them.

This sometimes happens before I log in, sometimes when I open a web browser, but almost always when I open a Terminal. My keyboard shuts off, my trackpad, even my external mouse no longer works. No input is allowed, and so I am forced to force a shutdown by holding the power button. I suspect this can't be good for my system :-P

Any help would be appreciated. As I just mentioned, I just installed Xubuntu, so if I need to downgrade or reinstall or something, I'm not entirely opposed to that. However, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. Thanks!

Moved to Apple Users


Hopefully, you'll get better answers here, given the hardware you are using.

Do you suppose this is because of XFCE? I've tried Linux Mint and regular Ubuntu, and haven't had this same issue. Truth be told, I wouldn't mind changing my desktop manager to Cinnamon if that would help.

Blart. I tried installing Xubuntu 12.04, and hooray, it did it again. I really wanted an install of Ubuntu that was going to be really low on resources, but I suppose I'll have to try my luck elsewhere. I'm going to try installing Ubuntu Gnome, and cross my fingers.

This is kind of unrelated ranting, but I REALLY don't like Windows. I got rid of it a few months ago, and have been trying to find a version of Linux that will, y'know...work on my computer. In the past, I've always really enjoyed the experience that I've had with Linux and its community, but admittedly I am not getting that experience this time around.