Fernando M. Roxo da Motta wrote:
>   Hi all.
>
>
>   I've just upgraded my notebook to SL 4.4 (from 4.3) and it looks like
> there is some difference in keyboard or '[x|u]term' config.   Until SL 4.3,
> up from 4.0, I had no problem in using CLI as usual.   After the upgrade
> I noticed some weird behaviour.
>
>   The first one was during a 'vi' edit when hitting backspace key I got
> those "^?^?^?" (roubouts) in place of the usual destructive backspace.  In
> '[x|u]term' prompt I got :
>
> $ stty
> speed 38400 baud; line = 0;
> erase = ^H;
> -brkint -imaxbel
>
> I don't know what changed, if the "erase" setting or the generated
> charcode.   I know that a 'stty erase ^?' in personal profile takes care
> of it, but some one can get troubled by this.
>   

There is a long history of Keyboard Backspace/Delete setting in Linux. 
Probably some internationalization stuff & messing with the term setting 
in /etc/profile.d. Might be tough to track, 'xmodmap' can help and see 
these links...

Hans' Fixkeys Page
http://x.mame.net/hans/fixkeys.html
Consistent BackSpace and Delete Configuration
http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/BackspaceDelete.html

>   Another difference was in Mutt.  I use "home" and "end" keys to navigate
> to top (first-entry) or bottom (last-entry), but now those keys seems to
> be generating different sequencies as I only got the message "Key is not
> bound." error.  This can be "fixed" with the following in '~/.muttrc' :
>
> bind generic "\e[1~" first-entry # bindings for compensate SL 4.4 config
> bind generic "\e[4~" last-entry
>
>
>   These problems seems to show up onlu with '[x|u]term', as
> 'gnome-terminal' and 'konsole' sets erase to rubout as usual.   Even the
> "home" and "end" key works ok in these.
>
>
>   

Gnome & KDE should follow Freedesktop standards now. Though, there are 
many types of laptops & new keyboard configs, such is the 'tower of 
bable' syndrome. This one helped me awhile back with my eMachines M6809 
Laptop.

HOWTO Use Multimedia Keys - Gentoo Linux Wiki
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_Multimedia_Keys

-HTH Art@JAX