diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index c2763e54fd0e20be48f2f4fbd55f5f47d52bf3dd..e0995fa7adc84524b0051322766a0db0c97ee2ad 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -565,10 +565,10 @@ if eval "test x$CURSES_LIB_NAME = x"; then
 fi
 
 if eval "test x$CURSES_LIB_NAME = x"; then
-	AC_MSG_WARN([
-*** No curses lib available.  Consider getting the official ncurses
-*** distribution from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses if you get
-*** errors compiling nano.])
+	AC_MSG_ERROR([
+*** No curses lib was found.  Please install the curses header files
+*** from libncursesw5-dev (Debian), ncurses-devel (Fedora), or similar.
+*** (Or install ncurses from https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ncurses/.)])
 else
 	AC_MSG_RESULT([Using $CURSES_LIB_NAME as the curses library])
 fi