In order to make bash shortcuts like Alt+. work in virtual terminals, you need to modify the keyboard mappings to map the left Alt to work like Unix special “Meta” key.
You can either start with one of the existing mappings, like this:
sed 's/lalt/meta/g' /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/us.iso.kbd > /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/local.kbd
Or, if you’re not sure which keymap file you’re currently using you can get your current keybindings using kbdcontrol:
kbdcontrol -d | sed 's/lalt/meta/g' > /usr/share/syscons/keymaps/local.kbd
Then, assuming you want this change to be global, edit your /etc/rc.conf file and add the following line:
keymap="local"
