diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/env/app-editors/vim b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/env/app-editors/vim
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..96c24c480d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/coreos/config/env/app-editors/vim
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# automatic terminal library selection doesn't work when cross-compiling
+# Gentoo bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=473372
+EXTRA_ECONF="--with-tlib=ncurses"