diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0d4514bbc..84a02fcb1 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -327,6 +327,25 @@ AC_CHECK_FUNCS( dirfd )
 
 AC_CHECK_DECL( [mkostemp], [ AC_CHECK_FUNCS([mkostemp]) ] )
 
+#
+# Although setupterm is linkable thanks to SEARCH_LIBS above, some
+# builds of ncurses include the actual headers in a different package
+#
+AC_CHECK_DECL( [setupterm], , [AC_MSG_ERROR([Could not find a curses implementation, needed to build fish. If this is Linux, try running 'sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev' or 'sudo yum install ncurses-devel'])], [
+#if HAVE_NCURSES_H
+#include <ncurses.h>
+#elif HAVE_NCURSES_CURSES_H
+#include <ncurses/curses.h>
+#else
+#include <curses.h>
+#endif
+#if HAVE_TERM_H
+#include <term.h>
+#elif HAVE_NCURSES_TERM_H
+#include <ncurses/term.h>
+#endif
+] )
+
 dnl AC_CHECK_FUNCS uses C linkage, but sometimes (Solaris!) the behaviour is
 dnl different with C++.
 AC_MSG_CHECKING([for wcsdup])