Sanest way to make emacs behave on a Solaris OS

[Harry Putnam]

I hope there may be a longtime emacs on Solaris user in the house who
can tell me the sanest way to make emacs behave on that OS.

I'm running a recent install of openindiana (one of the offshoot
solaris OS's) and its been a good long while since I've run Solaris. 

The biggest problem is that the M (alt) key is not recognized on
solaris and so one must use the Esc key which is really awkward.  And
it seems I vaguely recall some other problems too, but right now that
Esc key thing is such an absolute pain I haven't got that far.

I realize I can do some key re-assignments but I seem to remember
there being some drawbacks to that too.  So anyway, someone who has
run emacs on Solaris will maybe know a comprehensive solution I can
try.