Instead of trying to find obscure termcap libraries, use pkg-config
to detect the proper flags required for curses support.
See also:
https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=590676

--- a/m4/acinclude.m4
+++ b/m4/acinclude.m4
@@ -1085,32 +1085,8 @@
 dnl Find a suitable termlib to use.
 dnl
 AC_DEFUN([OCTAVE_CHECK_LIB_TERMLIB], [
-  TERM_LIBS=
-  ac_octave_save_LIBS="$LIBS"
-  AC_SEARCH_LIBS([tputs],
-                 [ncurses curses termcap terminfo termlib],
-                 [], [])
-  LIBS="$ac_octave_save_LIBS"
-  case "$ac_cv_search_tputs" in
-    -l*)
-      TERM_LIBS="$ac_cv_search_tputs"
-    ;;
-    no)
-      warn_termlibs="I couldn't find -ltermcap, -lterminfo, -lncurses, -lcurses, or -ltermlib!"
-      AC_MSG_WARN([$warn_termlibs])
-    ;;
-  esac
-
-dnl  Old code (9/9/2012).  Delete when new code is definitely proven.
-dnl
-dnl  for _termlib in ncurses curses termcap terminfo termlib; do
-dnl    AC_CHECK_LIB([${_termlib}], [tputs], [
-dnl      TERM_LIBS="-l${termlib}"
-dnl      octave_cv_lib_found_termlib=yes
-dnl      break])
-dnl  done
-
-  AC_SUBST(TERM_LIBS)
+  PKG_CHECK_MODULES([TERM], [ncurses])
+  CPPFLAGS="${CPPFLAGS} ${TERM_CFLAGS}"
 ])
 dnl
 dnl Check for the Qhull version.