c vim garbles 1st character of file when using via mobaxterm

Question

this thing drives me crazy, and I am unable to find a solution...

I am logging in to a FreeBSD machine via ssh using MobaXterm. Every time I open a text file with vim, it replaces the first character of the file with 'g'. It is not just garbling the display, when I try to quit vim, it warns me that the file has been changed, and after writing the file the 'g' is in there of course.

The only thing I was able to figure out that this only happens when TERM is set to an xterm variant (xterm, xterm-color, etc.). It does not happen when using other editors (nano or vi).

Could anyone suggest a solution or point me to the right direction what should I check or reconfigure?

Update:

The output of :scriptnames

  1: /usr/local/etc/vim/vimrc
  2: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/syntax/syntax.vim
  3: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/syntax/synload.vim
  4: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/syntax/syncolor.vim
  5: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/filetype.vim
  6: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/getscriptPlugin.vim
  7: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/gzip.vim
  8: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/logiPat.vim
  9: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/matchparen.vim
 10: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/netrwPlugin.vim
 11: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/rrhelper.vim
 12: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/spellfile.vim
 13: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/tarPlugin.vim
 14: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/tohtml.vim
 15: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/vimballPlugin.vim
 16: /usr/local/share/vim/vim74/plugin/zipPlugin.vim

I don't have a .vimrc file in my home directory, the one in /usr/local/etc/vim is the unmodified default file that came with the vim package:

if v:lang =~ "utf8$" || v:lang =~ "UTF-8$"
        set fileencodings=ucs-bom,utf-8,latin1
endif

let g:is_posix = 1
set nocompatible
set bs=indent,eol,start
set history=50
set ruler

if &t_Co > 2 || has("gui_running")
        syntax on
        set hlsearch
endif

if has("autocmd")
        augroup freebsd
        autocmd!
        if $PORTSDIR != ""
                autocmd BufNewFile $PORTSDIR/*/*/Makefile 0r $PORTSDIR/Templates/Makefile
        else
                autocmd BufNewFile /usr/ports/*/*/Makefile 0r /usr/ports/Templates/Makefile
        endif
endif

It happens when opening text or binary files. The issue seems to be related to MobaXterm however; it happens only when I connect with MobaXterm. Vim works normally when I use putty or the physical console ($TERM is xterm in both cases).

Answer 1

I believe this is a bug, that has recently been fixed. Please update your Vim.

Oh and in case of the mobaxterm, this also seems to be a bug of the mobaxterm

Answer 2

Add this to your ~/.vimrc file:

set background=dark

Answer 3

I meet the same problem. I don't have the solution to fix it. But I do have a workaround to avoid it.

You can install 'tmux' and use vim on tmux, the 'g' issue would be gone.