debugger is always busy

[J Sinclair]

I'm using DDD to debug (and sometimes only GDB) and have an interesting problem.

Besides an unusual lag between some commands (break, next, next, wait five
minutes, click next, and it takes 30 seconds to move to the next line), I am
unable to set a variable's value when the program is interrupted and the
variable is in context.  Each time I try, I receive the message "gdb is busy",
and the set fails.
DDD's indicator at the bottom right seems to flash "busy"  almost all the time.

Is there any workaround known for such behaviour?

Jack Sinclair