What causes "checking for tde-config... not found" failures?

All, Aside from the obvious (no tde-config), what is being checked for that causes this type of initial build failure. I am seeing it in several applications (abakus, amarok, etc..). This is with the 3.5.13-sru branch files. Obviously tde-config is present as tdelibs, tdebase, etc.. have built without issue. So anybody familiar with some check that will need to be adjusted to fix these? I'll dig into them, but if you have and idea -- let me know :) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.