Looking back at what sometimes happened with gimp. An overlay program, something like those things that darkened the display at night, I do not know what that one is called.
That would stop the mouse working for some reason.
Edit: Just for info: It is a MATE DE. The Mint 22.3 install from the ISO was a straight forward install. Mint partitioned the VM and wrote the system and the standard apps. I did an apt update / apt upgrade which pulled in about 15 updated packages. The only thing I installed was synaptic so I can easily check on versions but not used to install anything. It is a clean installation.
That would stop the mouse working for some reason.
Edit: Just for info: It is a MATE DE. The Mint 22.3 install from the ISO was a straight forward install. Mint partitioned the VM and wrote the system and the standard apps. I did an apt update / apt upgrade which pulled in about 15 updated packages. The only thing I installed was synaptic so I can easily check on versions but not used to install anything. It is a clean installation.