I had this problem with vim in OpenSuse:
when in “Insert” mode the backspace insert “^?”, and I want to it to
remove characters to the left 
Solved such way:
I made file “~/.vimrc” in my user directory.
The file “.vimrc” contain:
" copy from here start of .vimrc
" comment: <press CTRL+V><press backspace> mean you must to press these
keys in that order
set t_kb=<press CTRL+V><press backspace>
fixdel
" to have mouse enabled in normal mode
set mouse=n
" copy to here end of .vimrc
–
gvitalie
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View this thread: http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=400922