Why doesn't my Meta key work in an xterm window?

Try all of these methods before asking for further help:

• You may have big problems using `mwm' as your window manager.{Does anyone know a good generic solution to allow the use of the Meta key in Emacs with mwm?}
• For X11R4: Make sure it really is a Meta key.Use `xev' to find out what keysym your Meta key generates. It should be either Meta_L or Meta_R. If it isn't, use xmodmap to fix the situation.
• Make sure the pty the xterm is using is passing 8 bit characters. `stty -a' (or `stty everything') should show `cs8' somewhere. If it shows `cs7' instead, use `stty cs8 -istrip' (or `stty pass8') to fix it.
• If there is an rlogin connection between the xterm and the Emacs, the `-8' argument may need to be given to rlogin to make it pass all 8 bits of every character.
• If the Emacs is running under Ultrix, it is reported that evaluating (set-input-mode t nil) helps.
• If all else fails, you can make xterm generate "ESC W" when you type M-W, which is the same conversion Emacs would make if it got the M-W anyway. In X11R4, the following resource specification will do this:

    XTerm.VT100.EightBitInput: false
  

  (This changes the behavior of the insert-eight-bit action.) With older xterms, you can specify this behavior with a translation:

    XTerm.VT100.Translations: #override \
      Meta<KeyPress>: string(0x1b) insert()
  

  You might have to replace `Meta' with `Alt'.