If you are trying to install Qt and Qwt (Qt Widgets for Technical Applications) on CentOS, then the following instructions should be of good use. I created these steps, after many a trial and error, using Qt 5.1.1 and Qwt 6.1.0 on CentOS 6.4 x86 64bit. These steps have proven to work on several CentOS machines and could also work on Fedora and Red Hat.

Feel free to use newer versions of the install packages, but just make sure to alter the version numbers in the steps as applicable. Also, most dependencies are covered in these instructions, but there may be others that you will have to find if something fails to build properly.

Installing Qt 5.1.1 on CentOS 6.4

1. Install Development Tools
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
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2. Install glibc-devel.i686 (the 32-bit version is required to build GCC)
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo yum install glibc-devel.i686
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3. Download and install GCC 4.8.1 or latest version. Instructions copied from here
Qt Code: 
  1. tar xvjf gcc-4.8.1.tar.bz2
  2. cd gcc-4.8.1
  3. ./contrib/download_prerequisites
  4. cd ..
  5. mkdir objdir
  6. cd objdir
  7. $PWD/../gcc-4.8.1/configure --prefix=$HOME/gcc-4.8.1
  8. make
  9. sudo make install
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4. Copy new GCC libraries to /usr/lib64
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo mv /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.backup
  2. sudo cp -P /opt/gcc-4.8.1/lib64/libstdc++.so.6 /usr/lib64
  3. sudo cp /opt/gcc-4.8.1/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.18 /usr/lib64/
  4. sudo ldconfig -v
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5. Download and install Qt 5.1.1 or latest version
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo ./qt-linux-opensource-5.1.1-x86_64-offline.run
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6. Add Qt commands to PATH (e.g. qmake)
  • Create qt5.sh file

Qt Code: 
  1. sudo gedit /etc/profile.d/qt5.sh
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  • Add the following lines to qt5.sh

Qt Code: 
  1. PATH=/opt/Qt5.1.1/5.1.1/gcc_64/bin:$PATH
  2. export PATH
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  • Save and close qt5.sh


  • Run qt5.sh

Qt Code: 
  1. . /etc/profile.d/qt5.sh
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  • Verify that qmake is version 5.1.1

Qt Code: 
  1. which qmake
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7. Edit Qt Creator desktop configuration file to allow all users to run
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/DigiaQtOpenSource-qtcreator.desktop
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  • Comment out or remove the line “Path=/root”

  • Save and close DigiaQtOpenSource-qtcreator.desktop


Installing Qwt 6.1.0 on CentOS 6.4

1. Install mesa-libGLU-devel
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo yum install mesa-libGLU-devel
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2. Download and install Qwt 6.1.0 or latest version
Qt Code: 
  1. tar xvjf qwt-6.1.0.tar.bz2
  2. cd qwt-6.1.0
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  • Configure qwtconfig.pri

Qt Code: 
  1. gedit qwtconfig.pri
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  • Change QWT_INSTALL_PREFIX to “/opt/qwt-$$QWT_VERSION”

  • Configure rest of qwtconfig.pri and comment/uncomment plugins as desired

  • Save and close qwtconfig.pri

  • Build and install Qwt

Qt Code: 
  1. qmake qwt.pro
  2. make
  3. sudo make install
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3. Link Qwt plugin to Qt
Qt Code: 
  1. sudo ln -s /opt/qwt-6.1.0/plugins/designer/libqwt_designer_plugin.so /opt/Qt5.1.1/Tools/QtCreator/bin/plugins/designer/
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4. Create qwt ld.so configuration file
Qt Code: 
  1. echo /opt/qwt-6.1.0/lib | sudo tee /etc/ld.so.conf.d/qwt.conf
  2. sudo ldconfig -v
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5. Add the following lines to the .pro file of the Qt project in which you want to use Qwt plugins
Qt Code: 
  1. #QWT
  2. QWT_LOCATION = /opt/qwt-6.1.0
  3. INCLUDEPATH += $${QWT_LOCATION}/include/
  4. LIBS += -L$${QWT_LOCATION}/lib -lqwt
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6. Done!