diff -urN a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
--- a/configure.ac	2014-10-11 14:22:27.451167600 +0100
+++ b/configure.ac	2014-10-11 14:22:30.021314600 +0100
@@ -4779,7 +4779,9 @@
 
 # first curses header check
 ac_save_cppflags="$CPPFLAGS"
+if test yes != "$cross_compiling"; then
 CPPFLAGS="$CPPFLAGS -I/usr/include/ncursesw"
+fi
 
 AC_CHECK_HEADERS(curses.h ncurses.h)