> configure:13264: checking for TTY-related features > configure:13280: checking for tgetent in -lncurses > configure:13296: gcc -o conftest -g -O3 -Wall -Wno-switch -Winline -Wmissing-prototypes -Wshadow -I/usr/X11/include -L/usr/X11/lib conftest.c -lncurses -lXm -ltiff -ljpeg -lz -lXpm -lXmu -lXt -lXext -lX11 -lSM -lICE -lm -lutil -lgcc -lc -lgcc /usr/lib/crtn.o 1>&5 > /usr/i486-suse-linux/bin/ld: cannot find -lncurses I would have expected it to find the ncurses library. Do you have a libncurses.so?

Suggestions: ensure that you have libncurses, and (most importantly) the libncurses.so symlink. If this is a RedHat system, you only get the unversioned symlink when you install the corresponding -devel package (i.e. ncurses-devel in this case).