akonadi problem since a recent update

["René J.V. Bertin"]

I'm not sure exactly which of the recent KDE updates messed things up, but I can no longer use any KDE application that relies on Akonadi on my 10.6 machine.
I'm convinced that I had configured the server to use sqlite (as I do under Linux), but the 1st error I noticed (and finally corrected) was that the configuration was set (changed?!) to use mysql . After reverting to sqlite the server starts fine with akonadictl start, but I still have the following output as soon as a client connects, for instance the akonadiconsole application:

{{{
akonadiconsole(80988) KDirWatch::removeDir: doesn't know "/Users/bertin/Library/Preferences/KDE/share/apps/messageviewer/themes/" 
akonadiconsole(80988) KDirWatch::removeDir: doesn't know "/Volumes/Debian/MacPorts/share/apps/messageviewer/themes/" 
libpng warning: iCCP: Not recognizing known sRGB profile that has been edited
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Users/bertin/Library/Preferences/KDE/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Volumes/Debian/MacPorts/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Users/bertin/Library/Preferences/KDE/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Volumes/Debian/MacPorts/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Users/bertin/Library/Preferences/KDE/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Volumes/Debian/MacPorts/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Users/bertin/Library/Preferences/KDE/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
QFileSystemWatcher: failed to add paths: /Volumes/Debian/MacPorts/share/apps/messageviewer/themes
[etc]
}}}

Those directories exist and have permissions that should allow me to remove them, search and write in them. The path add failure might be executed in a sort of dead loop as the application becomes completely irresponsive and has to be killed.

I notice that the default is now to use a mariadb backend, but even if I install that akonadi variant, how am I to reconfigure the server if I cannot get to the server configuration dialog (which I only know how to open through akonadiconsole)?

TIA,
R.