Vim annoyance; possible bug

[Sir Link]

I am experiencing (and have been for quite a while now) a VERY annoying problem in vim. Whenever I try to retrieve my last search history by using /<Up Arrow>, vim snaps into Insert mode and inserts the letter A (likewise, the right, down and left arrows produce C, B, and D, respectively). Pressing :<Up Arrow> shows me my command history like it's supposed to, but the search history refuses to work normally.

This problem occurs only with graphical terminal emulators such as gnome-terminal and konsole. Gvim works fine, while the tty consoles will beep when I press /<Up Arrow>. It occurs both as root and as a normal user.

Deleting my .vimrc (read: renaming it to something vim won't look for) does NOT change anything.

This problem only occurs on my current system (specs below); my other system, which has the exact same version of vim compiled in exactly the same manner. Global configuration files are identical as far as I know since I haven't altered them on either system.

System specs: Gentoo with kernel 2.6.18-gentoo-r6, 64-bit dual core processor with appropriate 64-bit setup. See http://users.penguindevelopment.org/...ag/1168976433/ for extensive specs.

Vim versioning information:

$ eix vim
[I] app-editors/gvim 
     Available versions:  6.4 7.0.17 ~7.0.91 ~7.0.146 ~7.0.174
     Installed:           7.0.17(19:43:29 16/01/07)(-acl -aqua bash-completion -cscope gnome gpm gtk motif -mzscheme netbeans nextaw nls perl python ruby)
     Homepage:            http://www.vim.org/
     Description:         GUI version of the Vim text editor

[I] app-editors/vim 
     Available versions:  6.4 7.0.17 ~7.0.91 ~7.0.146 [m](~)7.0.174
     Installed:           7.0.17(17:11:22 16/01/07)(-acl bash-completion -cscope gpm -minimal -mzscheme nls perl python ruby -vim-pager -vim-with-x)
     Homepage:            http://www.vim.org/
     Description:         Vim, an improved vi-style text editor

[I] app-editors/vim-core 
     Available versions:  6.4 7.0.17 ~7.0.91 ~7.0.146 [m](~)7.0.174
     Installed:           7.0.17(17:09:32 16/01/07)(-acl bash-completion -livecd nls)
     Homepage:            http://www.vim.org/
     Description:         vim and gvim shared files

My other system is a 32-bit single-core one, also with Gentoo on it. Again, the configuration for vim is exactly the same USE-flag- and version-wise.

This is all the relevant information I can think of for now, but please do tell me if you need more.

[Cabhan]

The "produce letter" thing happens in old versions of vi, which suggests to me that you may have somehow messed with the mapping of the arrow keys. I know that there are ways to change the behavior of the keys (I did it with backspace during my last summer job), and Gvim has a separate config file from Vim. So try looking up the key bindings and manually setting them in your vimrc.

[Sir Link]

Hmm, thanks. I have now found out that <C-V>(Up Arrow) produces <Up> in gvim and ^[0A in vim, probably because Vim is running through a terminal. I've tried to just use :map ^[0A <Up>, but that didn't do a thing. How would I go about mapping it, and why does everything else work fine with ^[0A, while the search history does not?

[likwid]

Traditionally, moving through vi was done with h is left j is down k is up and l is right. This is normal operation, unless /etc/vimrc or ~/.vimrc says otherwise.

[Sir Link]

Quite possible, but the problem is, HOW do I configure .vimrc to do otherwise, and WHY does this only happen on the 64-bit system, but not for the other one, despite it being configured the exact same way for vim?

Also, I know that having a .vimrc automatically sets nocp, and I thought that was supposed to take care of making the arrow keys work...

[likwid]

Possibly different vimrc installed with 64 bit rpm? If vim is even 64 bit I don't know, have you tried copying both /etc/vimrc and your home vimrc over to the system that doesn't work from the system that does?

[Sir Link]

RPM? I use Gentoo, so portage built it from source.

Both the global /etc/vimrc and the personal ~/.vimrc files are identical on both systems, so that couldn't be it.