diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index e8860072971df63f15d32ca9b2228a35bea802bb..46dc3d16e9e647393ccc3e9ee616d8df8e5f10d3 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -668,6 +668,10 @@ AC_CHECK_LIB(iberty, xmalloc)
 AC_CHECK_LIB(bfd,    bfd_init)
 
 dnl ** check for readline, for Hugs
+dnl termcap is obsoleted by ncurses, but for compatibility, we have to
+dnl check for both...
+AC_SEARCH_LIBS(tputs, [ncurses termcap])
+
 AC_CHECK_LIB(readline, readline,
 [
 AC_DEFINE(HAVE_LIBREADLINE,1)
@@ -676,8 +680,7 @@ HaveLibReadline=YES
 [
 AC_DEFINE(HAVE_LIBREADLINE,0)
 HaveLibReadline=NO
-],
--ltermcap)
+])
 AC_SUBST(HaveLibReadline)