I just noticed that on all my Gentoo boxes, you can't jump around by word using ctrl-arrow_key in the non-x console. It works fine in xterm/Eterm/etc. while running X, but doesn't directly on the console. I haven't had a chance yet to try it on another distro. Does anyone know how to get this to work? Here's the backward-word/forward-word lines from my /etc/inputrc:

# gnome-terminal (escape + arrow key)
"\e[5C": forward-word
"\e[5D": backward-word
# konsole / xterm / rxvt (escape + arrow key)
"\e\e[C": forward-word
"\e\e[D": backward-word
# konsole (alt + arrow key)
"\e[1;3C": forward-word
"\e[1;3D": backward-word
# aterm / eterm (control + arrow key)
"\eOc": forward-word
"\eOd": backward-word
# xterm
"\e[1;5C": forward-word
"\e[1;5D": backward-word