Ubuntu :: Mouse And Keyboard Not Recognized On Startup?

Sometimes when I reboot, I go to log on only to find that the mouse won't move and the keyboard does nothing. Well, the mouse moves, it's not glued to the desk or anything. But it doesn't move the cursor. The first few times this happened, I found that it was a music player or other USB device plugged in that somehow created confusion or something. So if I unplugged them and booted up again, everything was fine. And by booting up again, I mean I have to hold down the power button and forcibly shut the thing off, since I obviously can't do it the nice way with no mouse or keyboard.

Anyway, it's been doing it now more often, even with nothing plugged into the front USB ports. But I have found that if I disconnect my external hard drive, it boots up fine again. But that's obnoxious, because that hard drive is online as much as the computer itself, because it's my main repository for files. So I have to unplug the USB from the back of it, hold the cable so it doesn't fall behind the desk, turn on the computer, and then log in one-handed while I hold the cable (because if I just plug it back in before the desktop shows, it doesn't mount properly).

And I know it's an Ubuntu thing rather than a general computer thing because the bios options work just fine. In fact, the little NumLock light is on until the moment that Ubuntu starts up and shows the login dialog.