Unable to install libncurses5-dev

[ravindra vejandla <email2vm@gmail.com>]

Hi Veterans,

I am trying to upgrade my debian kernel
1> First I downloaded gcc
2>now I am trying to download libncurses5-dev 

death:/usr/src/linux-2.6.31.6# apt-get install libncurses5-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package libncurses5-dev
 
so I downloaded it from  http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ncurses/
unzipeed it to /usr/src/linux-2.6.31.6

now when I am trying to use make menuconfig I am receiving following error

death:/usr/src/linux-2.6.31.6# make menuconfig
 *** Unable to find the ncurses libraries or the
 *** required header files.
 *** 'make menuconfig' requires the ncurses libraries.
 ***
 *** Install ncurses (ncurses-devel) and try again.
 ***
make[1]: *** [scripts/kconfig/dochecklxdialog] Error 1
make: *** [menuconfig] Error 2


Please help me to resolve this error and when I am trying to do the same in rhel5 I am able to use it

Thanks and regards

V M Ravindra Krishna
e   email2vm@gmail.com