--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -277,16 +277,23 @@
 esac
 AC_SUBST(VOID_SIGHANDLER)dnl
 
-AC_HAVE_HEADERS(termios.h termio.h sgtty.h)dnl
+AC_HEADER_CHECK(termios.h, DEFS="$DEFS -DHAVE_TERMIOS_H=1",
+  AC_HEADER_CHECK(termio.h, DEFS="$DEFS -DHAVE_TERMIO_H=1",
+    AC_HEADER_CHECK(sgtty.h, DEFS="$DEFS -DHAVE_SGTTY_H=1", [])))dnl
 case "$DEFS" in
   *HAVE_TERMIOS_H* | *HAVE_TERMIO_H* | *HAVE_SGTTY_H*)
   ;;
   *)
-    echo "I couldn't find termios.h, termio.h, or sgtty.h!"
+    cat << EOF
+error: I couldn't find termios.h, termio.h, or sgtty.h, and I can't
+       continue without them.  To compile Octave, your system must
+       have at least one of these header files.
+EOF
     exit 1
   ;;
 esac
 
+
 # Hack for readline's sysdep.h
 
 case "$target_host_type" in