Mouse strange behaviour - Can't click outside of any current application

[CopaceticOpus]

This is a strange issue I'm seeing on the Live CD for Ubuntu 8.10. (And the same thing happens with the 8.04 CD.)

Whenever I start an application and click inside of it with the mouse, the application window seems to steal the mouse focus. I can still move the mouse all over the screen, but any clicks outside of the inner application window are ignored. I can't click on the Ubuntu menu bar, nor can I click on the current application menu bar or move the current application window.

I can break the mouse free by using the keyboard to select an item from the application menu, or by pressing ALT+TAB. At this point the mouse is free again, until I click inside an application window.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[CopaceticOpus]

I found the cause of this odd little problem. It was the mouse, which was old and which had its scroll wheel locked in the down position.

[kongo09]

Funny enough, I have exactly the same problem with 10.04. My mouse currently works in the browser window I'm using to write this message, but not at all outside this window or on my second screen.

The middle button is not stuck (I can use its clicks for actions) so I'm a bit lost here.

Oh, just discovered that the mouse now only works in the displayed webpage, but not in the browser menu or the window title bar. What a strange behaviour.

[kongo09]

just changed the keyboard - it seems like that was the problem.