if anyone has a working setup for this, or there's a web page that covers this, i'd be grateful.
Isn't it enough to create a "qtprepare" ?
#!/bin/sh
unset QTINC QTLIB QTPATH_LRELEASE QMAKESPEC
qmake-qt4
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It should create a Makefile for you.
Another possibility is adding these lines to your .cshrc:
#QT setenv QTDIR /usr/lib/qt4 setenv QTPATH_LRELEASE $QTDIR/bin/lrelease setenv QMAKESPEC $QTDIR/mkspecs/linux-g++