Vim | Trouble with 'showmode'

Question

Everything was working fine, until I forcibly closed Vim while editing my .vimrc file. I also, not thinking straight, deleted the .vimrc.swp file. So, I lost the changes, no big deal.

But now, Vim doesn't show the mode which I am currently in at the time. Very annoying. I only found one post saying something similar but no real solution.

I have tried:

:set showmode

while in a file, nothing happens.

set showmode

in my .vimrc file, nothing happens - yes I saved, closed vim, even closed the terminal, still nothing.

I also renamed .vimrc to important, just to make sure it wasn't something going on inside the file. This also did not fix the issue.

I even made sure my system was updated. Still nothing.

I will post my .vimrc here, nothing special or crazy, I don't think. Any help would be appreciated.

syntax on
set showmode
set history=50
set laststatus=2
filetype plugin indent on
filetype plugin on

autocmd FileType text setlocal textwidth=80

" set ruler on
set ruler

"set line break at blank char
set showbreak=\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ "

set linebreak 
set wrap

"set to not be completely Vi compatible
set nocompatible

"show line numbers
set nu

"search while typing
set incsearch

"hightlight search pattern
set hlsearch

"auto-index
set autoindent

set autowrite

"set tab in normal mode to 4
set shiftwidth=4

"set tab to 4
set tabstop=4

set softtabstop=4

set noexpandtab

set textwidth=80

"Remap keys: modes:
"i insert mode

"escape, exit insert move
inoremap jk <esc>

"quit without saving
inoremap qq <esc>:q!<return>

"save and quit
inoremap ww <esc>:wq<return>

"Shortcuts for C

inoremap \io #include <stdio.h><CR><CR><CR>//Main Function<cr>int main(int argc, char* argv[])<CR>{<CR><CR><TAB>return 0;<cr>}

"Shortcuts for Rails

inoremap \c <div class="code"><cr><cr></div>

inoremap \p <span class="prompt"> </span>

"n normal

"redo last undo
"nnoremap re <c-r> 

"quit without saving
nnoremap qi :q!<return>

"colon instead of semi-colon
"nnoremap ; :

"save
"nnoremap ww :w<return>

"save and quit
"nnoremap wq :wq<return>

"move to beginning of line
nnoremap fj 0

"move to end of line
nnoremap fk $

"move down one page
"nnoremap '' <c-f>

"switch to window on left
nnoremap \w <c-w>

"switch to window on right
"nnoremap wl <c-w>l

"v visual
"exit visual mode
vnoremap jk <esc>

"c command
"highlight Normal ctermbg=Black
"highlight Comment ctermbg=DarkGray
"highlight Constant ctermbg=Blue
"highlight NonText ctermbg=Black
"highlight Special ctermbg=DarkMagenta
highlight Cursor ctermfg=White

syntax enable

I even left all the comments in there just for the sake of completion. Thanks

Answer 1

Okay, so I figured out the problem.

I must have edited the profile preferences, and in the Colors tab there is a Bold color: option. I must have unchecked the box that says same as text color and the color was black, as is my background.

After checking the box, the --Insert-- was present.

Simple solution, to a problem that I was making complicated.

Thanks to everyone for trying to help.

Answer 2

I don't know if it matters (according to the help, it shouldn't), but

:set nocompatible

should be the first option that is set in your ~/.vimrc, because it affects many other options as well (and the 'showmode' default is one of them).