Trackpad Issues on Linux on 2013 Unibody MBP

[smirking]

I've tried four different flavors of Linux on a 2013 15" MBP and I'm having similar trackpad issues on all distros. I've tried lightweight configurations and distros that have everything you could possibly want installed by default. All of them are having the same issue. The trackpad keeps going dead while you're using it.

Every variant of Linux that I've tried on this machine has the same issue. I'll be dragging the pointer using the trackpad and then it'll suddenly go dead and no movement will be registered.

Has anyone run into this before with Linux installed on their old Intel Macs? I'm baffled as to what's even going on.

 

[Snowlover]

Just came upon this , and I had similar experience on 2011 macbook air.

Is it just that you can't get the pointer to move, or does the entire system freeze like mine did? Connected mouse - nothing , no response from keyboard. Had to power off.

My issue was with some conflict happening with the Broadcom wireless driver in later linux kernels. As soon as I enabled wifi the system froze.
I finally got linux mint 21.3 to work as it still uses kernel 5.15, but is only supported till April 2027. On my machine, any kernel past 6 causes the problem, and i haven't worked out the correct broadcom driver to use instead of the supplied one.

I don't know if you have this same issue on your 2013, but you could try mint 21.3 and see if that works.
You could also try resetting SMC/PRAM and see if that helps.