In Ubuntu OS, my "arrow keys" are not arrow keys

"vi doesn't have support for arrow keys. However, chances are you're actually using vim, which vi is often symlinked to for compatibility (I'm not certain what Ubuntu does, so I'm just guessing). Although vim supports the arrow keys, they tend to be disabled when run as vi.

If you are using vim, you can try typing the following command:

:set nocompatible

and see if that fixes the problem. This can also be loaded into your ~/.vimrc configuration file to load automatically every time you start the program.

Alternatively, you can run vim instead of vi."

"You are probably using an old version of vi. In older versions, you would navigate using the H, J, K, and L keys. To get the latest vi, do

sudo apt-get install vim

If you want the GUI too, use

sudo apt-get install vim-gnome"