SQL Plus command line: Arrow keys not giving previous commands back

Question

I am using Oracle 10g Express Edition on Fedora core 5 32+ bit os. The problem is when I use the SQL Plus command line to make SQL statements I can not get the previously typed command back at the prompt when I use the up and down arrow keys on my keyboard. This is quite easy when I am using a shell, but here with this Oracle command line interface it is not working at all. Here is the example as what actually is happening whe I press the up or down arrow keys.

SQL> drop table mailorders;

Table dropped.

SQL> ^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A^[[A

Answer 1

The 'l' command will show the last run command (source: krenger.ch):

SQL> l
  1* select owner, count(1) from dba_tables group by owner
SQL>

To get more than that, turn on history (source: dba-oracle):

SQL> set history on
SQL> history
  1  select * from dual;
  2  select sysdate from dual;
  3  show history