diff --git a/build/pkgs/autotools/patches/texinfo-libtinfo.patch b/build/pkgs/autotools/patches/texinfo-libtinfo.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..74113f6c2e4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build/pkgs/autotools/patches/texinfo-libtinfo.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+* Our ncurses package is built using configure option --with-termlib, which causes tgetent and friends to be put into the separate library libtinfo, not libncurses.
+* The ancient texinfo 4.13 that is used by our autotools package (with comment "texinfo 5.x breaks building old versions of autotools...") does not know about libtinfo.
+
+diff -r -u texinfo-4.13.orig/configure texinfo-4.13/configure
+--- src.orig/texinfo-4.13/configure	2008-09-18 11:46:26.000000000 -0700
++++ src/texinfo-4.13/configure	2016-10-18 00:04:15.000000000 -0700
+@@ -17477,7 +17477,7 @@
+ # rather ncurses.  So we check for it.
+ TERMLIBS=
+ # Check for termlib before termcap because Solaris termcap needs libucb.
+-TERMLIB_VARIANTS="ncurses curses termlib termcap terminfo"
++TERMLIB_VARIANTS="ncurses tinfo curses termlib termcap terminfo"
+ for termlib in ${TERMLIB_VARIANTS}; do
+   as_ac_Lib=`$as_echo "ac_cv_lib_${termlib}''_tgetent" | $as_tr_sh`
+ { $as_echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for tgetent in -l${termlib}" >&5
diff --git a/build/pkgs/autotools/type b/build/pkgs/autotools/type
index 9839eb20815..134d9bc32d5 100644
--- a/build/pkgs/autotools/type
+++ b/build/pkgs/autotools/type
@@ -1 +1 @@
-experimental
+optional