Comment 8 for bug 615892

I'd like to note that I am affected by this issue as well. However I did find a work around on my system (mint 9, ubuntu 10.04).

Right after the symptoms begin to pop up and my computer freezes except for the one window, I press ctrl alt backspace, drop back into log in screen, log back in, and usually the mouse works fine after this. If i disconnect and reconnect the mouse, the issue returns. Also, as I recall (it's been awhile since I tried to fix it myself) if I fiddle with the mouse settings using xinput the issue returns again.