simple question: building psql

I really like the feature of psql that allows you to press "up" to go
to your command history, and press "home" to go to the beginning, etc
(like a normal shell). However, I use debian linux. I have correctly
compiled pg on a mandrake box before (so that it has the more effective
version of psql), but never on debian. I thought it had something to do
with curses or ncurses, but after './configure'ing it didn't put the
libraries I have in any of the Makefiles (I have the libraries in
/usr/lib, .so and .a). I am using 7.1beta6 (although the same thing
seemed to happen since I have been using pg on debian). I am building
all of postgres, not just psql.

Thanks for any help,
Jeff Davis