Without this patch colors in mcabber do not work on Alpine (and
apparently also on FreeBSD).

The patch was taken from: https://bitbucket.org/McKael/mcabber-crew/issues/60/

diff --git a/mcabber/mcabber/screen.c b/mcabber/mcabber/screen.c
--- a/mcabber/screen.c
+++ b/mcabber/screen.c
@@ -1159,7 +1159,7 @@ static void scr_update_window(winbuf *wi
         color = COLOR_GENERAL;
 
       if (color != COLOR_GENERAL)
-        wattrset(win_entry->win, get_color(color));
+        wbkgdset(win_entry->win, get_color(color));
 
       // Generate the prefix area and display it
       scr_line_prefix(line, pref, prefixwidth);
@@ -1215,12 +1215,12 @@ static void scr_update_window(winbuf *wi
         if (actual && ((type == MC_ALL) || (actual->manual))
             && (line->flags & HBB_PREFIX_IN) &&
            (!(line->flags & HBB_PREFIX_HLIGHT_OUT)))
-          wattrset(win_entry->win, compose_color(actual->color));
+          wbkgdset(win_entry->win, compose_color(actual->color));
         wprintw(win_entry->win, "%s", line->text);
         // Return the char
         line->text[line->mucnicklen] = tmp;
         // Return the color back
-        wattrset(win_entry->win, get_color(color));
+        wbkgdset(win_entry->win, get_color(color));
       }
 
       // Display text line
@@ -1229,7 +1229,7 @@ static void scr_update_window(winbuf *wi
 
       // Return the color back
       if (color != COLOR_GENERAL)
-        wattrset(win_entry->win, get_color(COLOR_GENERAL));
+        wbkgdset(win_entry->win, get_color(COLOR_GENERAL));
 
       g_free(line->text);
       g_free(line);
@@ -1879,7 +1879,7 @@ void scr_draw_roster(void)
   if (Roster_Width) {
     int line_x_pos = roster_win_on_right ? 0 : Roster_Width-1;
     // Redraw the vertical line (not very good...)
-    wattrset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_GENERAL));
+    wbkgdset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_GENERAL));
     for (i=0 ; i < CHAT_WIN_HEIGHT ; i++)
       mvwaddch(rosterWnd, i, line_x_pos, ACS_VLINE);
   }
@@ -1977,16 +1977,16 @@ void scr_draw_roster(void)
     }
     if (buddy == current_buddy) {
       if (pending == '#')
-        wattrset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERSELNMSG));
-      else
-        wattrset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERSEL));
+        wbkgdset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERSELNMSG));
+      else
+        wbkgdset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERSEL));
       // The 3 following lines aim at coloring the whole line
       wmove(rosterWnd, i, x_pos);
       for (n = 0; n < maxx; n++)
         waddch(rosterWnd, ' ');
     } else {
       if (pending == '#')
-        wattrset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERNMSG));
+        wbkgdset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_ROSTERNMSG));
       else {
         int color = get_color(COLOR_ROSTER);
         if ((!isspe) && (!isgrp)) { // Look for color rules
@@ -2001,7 +2001,7 @@ void scr_draw_roster(void)
             }
           }
         }
-        wattrset(rosterWnd, color);
+        wbkgdset(rosterWnd, color);
       }
     }
 
@@ -2055,6 +2055,8 @@ void scr_draw_roster(void)
     i++;
   }
 
+  wbkgdset(rosterWnd, get_color(COLOR_GENERAL));
+
   g_free(rline);
   g_free(name);
   top_panel(inputPanel);