diff --git a/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/ncurses b/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/ncurses
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d85f6341
--- /dev/null
+++ b/releases/portage/stages-qemu/package.mask/releng/ncurses
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+# Temporarily mask ncurses-6.3, since the ~arch qemu builds need to upgrade sandbox first (works with sandbox 2.29)
+#
+# Seen on alpha:
+#checking whether the C compiler works...  * /var/tmp/portage/sys-apps/sandbox-2.25/work/sandbox-2.25/libsandbox/trace.c:_do_ptrace():83: failure (Function not implemented):
+# * ISE:_do_ptrace: ptrace(PTRACE_TRACEME, ..., 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000): Function not implemented
+#configure: error: cannot run C compiled programs.
+#
+>=sys-libs/ncurses-6.3