By default when you use FreeBSD’s BASH shell and if you hit Home, Del, Insert keys all of them just prints ~ (some garbage is printed ). To get rid of this problem, edit /etc/profile file and define key binding.
1) Open your bash global profile file:
# vi /etc/profile
2) Add following line to it:
export INPUTRC=/usr/local/etc/inputrc
3) Close and save the file
4) Open the file /usr/local/etc/inputrc and define / modify key binding:
# vi /usr/local/etc/inputrc
5) Append following config data:
set meta-flag on set input-meta on set convert-meta off set output-meta on "\e[1~": beginning-of-line "\e[4~": end-of-line "\e[5~": beginning-of-history "\e[6~": end-of-history "\e[3~": delete-char "\e[2~": quoted-insert "\e[5C": forward-word "\e[5D": backward-word
6) Close and save the file
7) Now logout and login back again to test your new key settings.
🐧 Get the latest tutorials on Linux, Open Source & DevOps via RSS feed or Weekly email newsletter.
🐧 14 comments so far... add one ↓
🐧 14 comments so far... add one ↓
Related Posts
Quick tip: Eject and Insert CD / DVD media under Linux
How to: Customize Ubuntu Linux
Quick Tip: Send Ctr + Alt + Del to XEN Vps / Guest os
Building a Home File Server with FreeNAS ( FreeBSD…- Linux Disable the Ctrl-Alt-Delete shutdown keys
Create function keys based shortcut to speeding up…
Howto use multiple SSH keys for password less login
Ubuntu / Debian Linux Find Weak OpenSSL keys
| Category | List of Unix and Linux commands |
|---|---|
| Disk space analyzers | df • ncdu • pydf |
| File Management | cat • tree |
| Firewall | Alpine Awall • CentOS 8 • OpenSUSE • RHEL 8 • Ubuntu 16.04 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Network Utilities | NetHogs • dig • host • ip • nmap |
| OpenVPN | CentOS 7 • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Debian 8/9 • Ubuntu 18.04 • Ubuntu 20.04 |
| Package Manager | apk • apt |
| Processes Management | bg • chroot • cron • disown • fg • jobs • killall • kill • pidof • pstree • pwdx • time |
| Searching | grep • whereis • which |
| User Information | groups • id • lastcomm • last • lid/libuser-lid • logname • members • users • whoami • who • w |
| WireGuard VPN | Alpine • CentOS 8 • Debian 10 • Firewall • Ubuntu 20.04 |
And another one:
“x7F”: backward-delete-char
PS Nice hints ‘n tips on your site!
You can just copy /usr/compat/linux/etc/inputrc to /etc/inputrc and add “export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc” to /etc/profile. Not sure if everyone has the /usr/compat/linux/etc/inputrc file, though. I’m on FreeBSD 6.1
PotatoSalad,
I am also not sure about freebsd 4.x. If you have the file just copy and use it 🙂
BTW, it’s
“x7F”: backward-delete-char
Forget the backslash like BOK and your keyboard will be crippled off the ‘x’ key
Don’t forget the ‘ctl-v’ trick though. (I mentioned it here.) I’ve found some of those codes are different on different keyboards/machines!
WOW! Thanks – I just switched two dedicated servers from Fedora Core 4 to FreeBSD 6.1 and this was driving me crazy!!!
Here’s some more handy things to put in your /etc/profile
alias pico="nano -w"
alias slocate="locate"
alias cd..="cd .."
export EDITOR=/usr/local/bin/nano
export INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
It’s also worth noting that if you don’t have permission to edit /etc/inputrc you can at least create a .inputrc file in your home directory
great!
Thanks a lot, that fixed the keys in bash, but there’s one more: the END key in the nano editor doesn’t work.
How would I get that going?
Thanks, but…
How to do this in (T)cshell ? I’ve no the program ‘export’.
I’m freebsd 7.1.
setenv.
it works very well on bash – Solaris 10.
Thanks alot, i got a vps with freebsd and have been hard just because this issue, now even the paste and copy from mouse works perfectly.
Hey there,
This post is kindof old but still relevant.
In freebsd 9.x I’ve had to add the following to the inputrc file to really make ctrl-arrow work:
hope that can be useful for ppl stumbling here.