diff -urp mc-4.6.0.orig/src/cons.saver.c mc-4.6.0/src/cons.saver.c
--- mc-4.6.0.orig/src/cons.saver.c	2006-04-03 21:22:49.000000000 +0200
+++ mc-4.6.0/src/cons.saver.c	2006-04-03 21:26:53.000000000 +0200
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ static int check_file (char *filename, i
     /* Avoiding race conditions: use of fstat makes sure that
        both 'open' and 'stat' operate on the same file */
 
-    fd = open (filename, O_RDWR);
+    fd = open (filename, O_RDWR | O_NONBLOCK);
     if (fd == -1)
 	return -1;
     
@@ -247,7 +247,7 @@ int main (int argc, char **argv)
      * Make sure stderr points to a valid place
      */
     close (2);
-    stderr_fd = open ("/dev/tty", O_RDWR);
+    stderr_fd = open ("/dev/tty", O_RDWR | O_NONBLOCK);
 
     /* This may well happen if program is running non-root */
     if (stderr_fd == -1)