--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -467,6 +467,7 @@
      AC_DEFINE(HAVE_REMOTE_ADMIN)
 fi
 
+PKG_CHECK_MODULES(ncurses,ncurses)
 
 dnl Curses detection: Munged from Midnight Commander's configure.in
 dnl
@@ -616,6 +617,16 @@
 		AC_DEFINE(USE_NCURSES)
 		AC_DEFINE(HAS_CURSES)
 		has_curses=true
+	  else
+		if test "$ncurses_LIBS" ; then
+			CURSES_LIBS="$ncurses_LIBS"
+			CURSES_INCLUDEDIR="$ncurses_CFLAGS"
+			search_ncurses=false
+			screen_manager="ncurses"
+			AC_DEFINE(USE_NCURSES)
+			AC_DEFINE(HAS_CURSES)
+			has_curses=true
+		fi
 	  fi
 	)