diff --git a/src/plugins/qtsupport/baseqtversion.cpp b/src/plugins/qtsupport/baseqtversion.cpp
index b670482729a..6165d543033 100644
--- a/src/plugins/qtsupport/baseqtversion.cpp
+++ b/src/plugins/qtsupport/baseqtversion.cpp
@@ -1813,6 +1813,15 @@ bool BaseQtVersionPrivate::queryQMakeVariables(const FilePath &binary, const Env
     QByteArray output;
     output = runQmakeQuery(binary, env, error);
 
+    if (!output.startsWith('Q')) { // Is it always "QT_SYSROOT="?
+        // Some setups pass error messages via stdout, fooling the logic below.
+        // Example with docker/qemu/arm "OCI runtime exec failed: exec failed: container_linux.go:367:
+        // starting container process caused: exec: "/bin/qmake": stat /bin/qmake: no such file or directory"
+        // Since we have a rough idea on what the output looks like we can work around this.
+        *error = QString::fromUtf8(output);
+        return false;
+    }
+
     if (output.isNull() && !error->isEmpty()) {
         // Note: Don't rerun if we were able to execute the binary before.