However, I've repeated the following procedure 3 times and it worked the
same each time -- probably not a minimal test case but it shows the
problem. I have to follow the steps precisely in order, though:
1) Reboot
2) start a fresh xwin, xterm, notepad, and put some text in the xterm and
notepad
3) select, ^C copy from notepad, middle-click in xterm. it pastes
successfully
4) select in xterm, leave the text reverse-videoed
5) ^V paste into notepad (successfully)
6) drop the selection in xterm (by left clicking somewhere)
7) ^V paste into notepad (successfully, even though the selection is
dropped)
8) select a different piece of text in xterm.
9) drop the selection in xterm
10) ^V paste into notepad: it hangs for a few seconds and doesn't paste.
(The paste menu option is NOT greyed out at this point).