diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.7.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.7.nix
index 9bcf8eb1fece..873925417c16 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.7.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/8.10.7.nix
@@ -39,7 +39,10 @@
   enableShared ? !stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows && !stdenv.targetPlatform.useiOSPrebuilt
 
 , # Whether to build terminfo.
-  enableTerminfo ? !stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows
+  enableTerminfo ? !(stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows
+                     # terminfo can't be built for cross
+                     || (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform)
+                     || (stdenv.hostPlatform != stdenv.targetPlatform))
 
 , # What flavour to build. An empty string indicates no
   # specific flavour and falls back to ghc default values.
@@ -86,6 +89,8 @@ let
     endif
     BUILD_SPHINX_HTML = ${if enableDocs then "YES" else "NO"}
     BUILD_SPHINX_PDF = NO
+
+    WITH_TERMINFO = ${if enableTerminfo then "YES" else "NO"}
   '' +
   # Note [HADDOCK_DOCS]:
   # Unfortunately currently `HADDOCK_DOCS` controls both whether the `haddock`
@@ -341,7 +346,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
   # `--with` flags for libraries needed for RTS linker
   configureFlags = [
     "--datadir=$doc/share/doc/ghc"
-    "--with-curses-includes=${ncurses.dev}/include" "--with-curses-libraries=${ncurses.out}/lib"
   ] ++ lib.optionals (args.${libffi_name} != null) [
     "--with-system-libffi"
     "--with-ffi-includes=${targetPackages.${libffi_name}.dev}/include"
@@ -380,6 +384,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
   # Used by the STAGE0 compiler to build stage1
   depsBuildBuild = [
     buildCC
+    # stage0 builds terminfo unconditionally, so we always need ncurses
+    ncurses
   ];
   # For building runtime libs
   depsBuildTarget = toolsForTarget;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-hadrian.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-hadrian.nix
index aefaf5b70aaf..78e0e2dd167e 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-hadrian.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-hadrian.nix
@@ -66,8 +66,14 @@
   enableShared ? with stdenv.targetPlatform; !isWindows && !useiOSPrebuilt && !isStatic && !isGhcjs
 
 , # Whether to build terminfo.
+  # FIXME(@sternenseemann): This actually doesn't influence what hadrian does,
+  # just what buildInputs etc. looks like. It would be best if we could actually
+  # tell it what to do like it was possible with make.
   enableTerminfo ? !(stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows
-                     || stdenv.targetPlatform.isGhcjs)
+                     || stdenv.targetPlatform.isGhcjs
+                     # terminfo can't be built for cross
+                     || (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform)
+                     || (stdenv.hostPlatform != stdenv.targetPlatform))
 
 , # Libdw.c only supports x86_64, i686 and s390x as of 2022-08-04
   enableDwarf ? (stdenv.targetPlatform.isx86 ||
@@ -439,7 +445,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   # `--with` flags for libraries needed for RTS linker
   configureFlags = [
     "--datadir=$doc/share/doc/ghc"
-    "--with-curses-includes=${ncurses.dev}/include" "--with-curses-libraries=${ncurses.out}/lib"
   ] ++ lib.optionals (libffi != null && !targetPlatform.isGhcjs) [
     "--with-system-libffi"
     "--with-ffi-includes=${targetPackages.libffi.dev}/include"
@@ -493,6 +498,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation ({
   # Used by the STAGE0 compiler to build stage1
   depsBuildBuild = [
     buildCC
+    # stage0 builds terminfo unconditionally, so we always need ncurses
+    ncurses
   ];
 
   buildInputs = [ perl bash ] ++ (libDeps hostPlatform);
diff --git a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-make-native-bignum.nix b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-make-native-bignum.nix
index 3788efeda8ba..3d5d9d6329a5 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-make-native-bignum.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/compilers/ghc/common-make-native-bignum.nix
@@ -42,7 +42,10 @@
   enableShared ? with stdenv.targetPlatform; !isWindows && !useiOSPrebuilt && !isStatic
 
 , # Whether to build terminfo.
-  enableTerminfo ? !stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows
+  enableTerminfo ? !(stdenv.targetPlatform.isWindows
+                     # terminfo can't be built for cross
+                     || (stdenv.buildPlatform != stdenv.hostPlatform)
+                     || (stdenv.hostPlatform != stdenv.targetPlatform))
 
 , # What flavour to build. An empty string indicates no
   # specific flavour and falls back to ghc default values.
@@ -88,6 +91,8 @@ let
     endif
     BUILD_SPHINX_HTML = ${if enableDocs then "YES" else "NO"}
     BUILD_SPHINX_PDF = NO
+
+    WITH_TERMINFO = ${if enableTerminfo then "YES" else "NO"}
   '' +
   # Note [HADDOCK_DOCS]:
   # Unfortunately currently `HADDOCK_DOCS` controls both whether the `haddock`
@@ -359,7 +364,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
   # `--with` flags for libraries needed for RTS linker
   configureFlags = [
     "--datadir=$doc/share/doc/ghc"
-    "--with-curses-includes=${ncurses.dev}/include" "--with-curses-libraries=${ncurses.out}/lib"
   ] ++ lib.optionals (libffi != null) [
     "--with-system-libffi"
     "--with-ffi-includes=${targetPackages.libffi.dev}/include"
@@ -402,6 +406,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation (rec {
   # Used by the STAGE0 compiler to build stage1
   depsBuildBuild = [
     buildCC
+    # stage0 builds terminfo unconditionally, so we always need ncurses
+    ncurses
   ];
   # For building runtime libs
   depsBuildTarget = toolsForTarget;