Problem:

Why don't the keys ALT CTRL work when pressing them?

Resolution:

Unfortunately most UNIX terminals, by default, simply do not send a key sequence when the Alt or Ctrl key is pressed.   You can see that no key sequence is sent from the ALT key by trying the following:

> cat > test

Then try pressing ALT, you will see that nothing appears in test, then try pressing ESC and you will see the key sequence  ^[ being shown as this is what is sent when the ESC key is pressed.  

As nothing is sent when the ALT key is pressed then there is nothing for Server Express to respond to, therefore this is not a Server Express software issue, but a keyboard/Unix issue.  In order to get around this to use our software, we recommend using /a for alt and /c for ctrl. To get a full list of key mappings you can use /m or see the COBOL User's Guide Appendix for Unix key usage chart

Otherwise maybe you could try manually mapping your ALT key to perform a /a using Unix keyboard commands.