diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
index dd3d60e48129..67c3bc5fe93f 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/default.nix
@@ -7,6 +7,10 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation ( rec {
     url = "mirror://gnu/ncurses/${name}.tar.gz";
     sha256 = "1x4q6kma6zgg438llbgiac3kik7j2lln9v97jdffv3fyqyjxx6qa";
   };
+
+  crossAttrs = { 
+    patches = [ ./wint_t.patch ];
+  };
   
   configureFlags = ''
     --with-shared --includedir=''${out}/include --without-debug
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/wint_t.patch b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/wint_t.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c9b34efd0bd9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/ncurses/wint_t.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+http://www.mail-archive.com/freewrt-developers@freewrt.org/msg01326.html
+--- ncurses-5.6.orig/ncurses/curses.priv.h     2006-12-10 01:55:14.000000000 0100
++++ ncurses-5.6/ncurses/curses.priv.h  2008-02-11 13:12:04.000000000 +0100
+@@ -253,6 +253,10 @@ color_t;
+ #include <term_entry.h>
+ #include <nc_tparm.h>
+
++#ifndef _WINT_T
++#include <wchar.h>
++#endif
++
+ #if NCURSES_EXT_COLORS && USE_WIDEC_SUPPORT
+ #define if_EXT_COLORS(stmt)   stmt
+ #define NetPair(value,p)      (value).ext_color = (p), \