diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 1b63488521716f9025ec5eefa980d7ce43d2680e..71a574f718fa7c892951b135c76e38f620c79188 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -3530,17 +3530,14 @@ if test "$curses" != "no" ; then
 #include <locale.h>
 #include <curses.h>
 #include <wchar.h>
-#include <langinfo.h>
 int main(void) {
-  const char *codeset;
   wchar_t wch = L'w';
   setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
   resize_term(0, 0);
   addwstr(L"wide chars\n");
   addnwstr(&wch, 1);
   add_wch(WACS_DEGREE);
-  codeset = nl_langinfo(CODESET);
-  return codeset != 0;
+  return 0;
 }
 EOF
   IFS=:
diff --git a/ui/curses.c b/ui/curses.c
index a59b23a9cf63fbee47ce75fbe354997a47ee9bb4..12bc682cf9b0ebe454b561f74a516a285dc4a005 100644
--- a/ui/curses.c
+++ b/ui/curses.c
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@
 #endif
 #include <locale.h>
 #include <wchar.h>
-#include <langinfo.h>
 #include <iconv.h>
 
 #include "qapi/error.h"
@@ -526,6 +525,7 @@ static void font_setup(void)
     iconv_t nativecharset_to_ucs2;
     iconv_t font_conv;
     int i;
+    g_autofree gchar *local_codeset = g_get_codeset();
 
     /*
      * Control characters are normally non-printable, but VGA does have
@@ -566,14 +566,14 @@ static void font_setup(void)
       0x25bc
     };
 
-    ucs2_to_nativecharset = iconv_open(nl_langinfo(CODESET), "UCS-2");
+    ucs2_to_nativecharset = iconv_open(local_codeset, "UCS-2");
     if (ucs2_to_nativecharset == (iconv_t) -1) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Could not convert font glyphs from UCS-2: '%s'\n",
                         strerror(errno));
         exit(1);
     }
 
-    nativecharset_to_ucs2 = iconv_open("UCS-2", nl_langinfo(CODESET));
+    nativecharset_to_ucs2 = iconv_open("UCS-2", local_codeset);
     if (nativecharset_to_ucs2 == (iconv_t) -1) {
         iconv_close(ucs2_to_nativecharset);
         fprintf(stderr, "Could not convert font glyphs to UCS-2: '%s'\n",
@@ -581,7 +581,7 @@ static void font_setup(void)
         exit(1);
     }
 
-    font_conv = iconv_open(nl_langinfo(CODESET), font_charset);
+    font_conv = iconv_open(local_codeset, font_charset);
     if (font_conv == (iconv_t) -1) {
         iconv_close(ucs2_to_nativecharset);
         iconv_close(nativecharset_to_ucs2);
@@ -602,7 +602,7 @@ static void font_setup(void)
     /* DEL */
     convert_ucs(0x7F, 0x2302, ucs2_to_nativecharset);
 
-    if (strcmp(nl_langinfo(CODESET), "UTF-8")) {
+    if (strcmp(local_codeset, "UTF-8")) {
         /* Non-Unicode capable, use termcap equivalents for those available */
         for (i = 0; i <= 0xFF; i++) {
             wchar_t wch[CCHARW_MAX];