Comment 39 for bug 29787

Here is the best solution I have found. For Jaunty Ubuntu xterm, right-click on the terminal screen to bring up the terminal options. On the left panel, select Advanced. Chane the Backspace Key Generates selection from Auto-detect to Control-H. That works for an xterm. I am using a Screenlet terminal, so this does not work for me. I suspect that my Screenlet terminal is hard coded to autodetect the backspace key, with no options I have found to change it.
Hope this helps someone.