diff --git a/package/base/gpm/gpm.conf b/package/base/gpm/gpm.conf
index 77fc1ebd8..3c7b7719c 100644
--- a/package/base/gpm/gpm.conf
+++ b/package/base/gpm/gpm.conf
@@ -35,3 +35,8 @@ EOT
 makeopt="$makeopt LDFLAGS=-lm"
 hook_add postmake 3 "gpm_pm"
 
+# Don't duplicate some ncurses symbols in the gpm shared library,
+# so ncurses can be built with gpm support.
+# Read http://invisible-island.net/ncurses/ncurses.faq.html#using_gpm_lib
+# for details.
+var_append extraconfopt " " "--without-curses"