UNIX for Advanced & Expert Users

I have a very weird problem with the gedit 2.30.3 text editor on GNOME 2.30.2 (Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS):

Any and all mouse clicks and key-presses into the gedit window are summarily ignored. When I say the gedit window, I mean the gedit window proper, the window contents, not the decoration of the gedit instance I have running. I can grab the window decoration and resize the window no problem. I can minimize it and maximize it, move it to other workspaces, and do anything that the window decorations are sort of responsible for. However, when I click anywhere in the actual program, e.g. on the pull-down menu (doesn't expand), on the buttons, in the text edit area, it doesn't do anything. Neither is trying to type anything. I also can't simply quit the program. (I know I could kill -9 it, and I have no doubts that would work, but I don't want to do that yet.) Meanwhile the cursor still blinks; so it's not totally frozen, but I can't type anything. If I launch gedit again in the same workspace, it does open a new tab with a new unsaved file, but I can't close it (so the only way is up, it seems ). (EDIT: If I launch gedit again in another workspace, it does open a new instance that is responsive, and that I can work in and quit properly.)

This is what the unresponsive gedit session looks like: http://i.imgur.com/IT0xR.png (looks harmless enough, but is unresponsive)

I can't even really remember doing anything in particular when this odd behaviour started. I think I might have been trying to copy and paste something into gedit.

This is what ps tells me:

Code:

$ ps ax|grep [g]edit
  673 ?        S      1:16 gedit

I do have unsaved text in some of the new text tabs. I want to:

1. Understand what has happened.
2. Save the unsaved text -- even if I have to resort to running a debugger or doing a memory dump -- something I've never really done before.
3. If possible, prevent this from recurring.

Is there anything I could/should do? Any and all suggestions or ideas would be highly welcome!

Can you cause this problem by unplugging and plugging your mouse back in? If so it's a known issue with Gnome which I've been waiting with bated breath for them to solve.