help getting emacs setup for use on solaris

[hput]

First a brief off topic request concerning posting or mail-list:

In last few months I've attempted posting here on gmane after making
sure my subscription to the mail list was still active. and replying
to the gmane authorize message I got.  However of several attempts
none have made it to this gmane.emacs.help.  Only if I email to the
mailling list does a message appear on the newsgroup.  Is that normal
or should I be able to post directly to the gmane newsgroup
gmane.emacs.help ? (Please excuse the above question)

-------       -------       ---=---       -------       ------- 

I'm Running an 'opensolaris' (now defunct) offshoot named
Openindiana/hipster

I ran the OS some years ago but just recently returned to it.
I got help here back then (at least 5 yrs ago) but have lost any file
or notes etc I had back then.

As I recall if involved setting up something that used xmodmap; ending
with a file read at startup that helped setup the proper key syms I
think it was called.

I looked at the output from xev on both the solaris alike OS and
ubuntu linux but didn't really see how to translate that into some
thing useful.

I believe I had in ~.emacs, lines I've since lost that helped prevent
some of the mess emacs undergoes on solaris; and then emacs would
behave mostly as it does on linux.

Can anyone here steer me toward some help with getting emacs to
behave?

Currently I must use 'ESC' anywhere 'M' would be used such as in M-x.
That it quite a stretch to get handy with.

Also the Ctrl key doesn't behave as it should seemingly rendering it
impossible to do simple Ctrl-/ to run undo and redo.. I must use M-x
which is really Esc-x undo/redo <RET> on this OS for that too.

Perhaps some readers run emacs on solaris or openindiana and will
know how to get it working correctly?