>As soon as I saw Tim's commit, it was clear to me that we will 
>need to add 
>such a choice. You have prepared a patch or should I do it?

I created a patch and am compiling as I write. Here is the patch. 
Please review!

=====================================
diff -urN tdelibs/CMakeLists.txt tdelibs.new/CMakeLists.txt
--- tdelibs/CMakeLists.txt	2013-08-15 16:35:14.000000000 -0500
+++ tdelibs.new/CMakeLists.txt	2013-08-15 18:38:21.659877443 -0500
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 
 include( FindPkgConfig )
 include( CheckIncludeFile )
+include( CheckIncludeFiles )
 include( CheckSymbolExists )
 include( CheckFunctionExists )
 include( CheckCSourceCompiles )
@@ -94,6 +95,7 @@
 OPTION( WITH_SUDO_TDESU_BACKEND "Use sudo as backend for tdesu 
(default is su)" OFF )
 OPTION( WITH_OLD_XDG_STD "Use the pre R14.0.0 XDG standard where 
both TDE and KDE are recognized in desktop files" OFF )
 OPTION( WITH_LZMA "Enable support for LZMA/XZ" ${WITH_ALL_OPTIONS} 
)
+OPTION( WITH_TDEIOSLAVE_BACKTRACE "Enable backtrace in tdeioslave 
exception handler" ${WITH_ALL_OPTIONS} )
 
 OPTION( WITH_ASPELL "Enable aspell support" ${WITH_ALL_OPTIONS} )
 OPTION( WITH_HSPELL "Enable hspell support" ${WITH_ALL_OPTIONS} )
diff -urN tdelibs/config.h.cmake tdelibs.new/config.h.cmake
--- tdelibs/config.h.cmake	2013-08-10 16:36:57.000000000 -0500
+++ tdelibs.new/config.h.cmake	2013-08-15 18:22:48.581678444 -0500
@@ -707,6 +707,9 @@
 /* Use FontConfig in tdeinit */
 #cmakedefine TDEINIT_USE_FONTCONFIG 1
 
+/* tdeioslave backtrace */
+#cmakedefine WITH_TDEIOSLAVE_BACKTRACE 1
+
 /* Use Xft preinitialization in tdeinit */
 #cmakedefine TDEINIT_USE_XFT 1
 
diff -urN tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/CMakeLists.txt 
tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/CMakeLists.txt
--- tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/CMakeLists.txt	2013-08-15 
16:35:14.000000000 -0500
+++ tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/CMakeLists.txt	2013-08-15 
18:32:46.337606197 -0500
@@ -81,13 +81,18 @@
   kdirnotify.cpp kdirnotify.skel kdirnotify_stub.cpp
   observer.cpp ../misc/uiserver.stub observer.skel 
tdeemailsettings.cpp
   kprotocolinfo.cpp renamedlg.cpp skipdlg.cpp kremoteencoding.cpp
-  kmimetypechooser.cpp backtrace_symbols.c
+  kmimetypechooser.cpp
 )
 
+if( WITH_TDEIOSLAVE_BACKTRACE )
+  list( APPEND ${target}_SRCS backtrace_symbols.c )
+  set( BACKTRACE_LIBRARY bfd )
+endif( )
+
 tde_add_library( ${target} STATIC_PIC AUTOMOC
   SOURCES ${${target}_SRCS}
   DEPENDENCIES dcopidl
-  LINK bfd
+  LINK ${BACKTRACE_LIBRARY} bfd
 )
 
 
diff -urN tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/ConfigureChecks.cmake 
tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/ConfigureChecks.cmake
--- tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/ConfigureChecks.cmake	1969-12-31 
19:00:00.000000000 -0500
+++ tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/ConfigureChecks.cmake	2013-08-15 
18:29:10.768715615 -0500
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+#################################################
+#
+#  (C) 2010-2011 Serghei Amelian
+#  serghei (DOT) amelian (AT) gmail.com
+#
+#  Improvements and feedback are welcome
+#
+#  This file is released under GPL >= 2
+#
+#################################################
+
+if( WITH_TDEIOSLAVE_BACKTRACE )
+  check_include_files( "bfd.h;demangle.h;libiberty.h" 
HAVE_BINUTILS_DEV )
+  if( NOT HAVE_BINUTILS_DEV )
+    tde_message_fatal( "binutils-dev are required, but not found 
on your system" )
+  endif( )
+endif( )
diff -urN tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/slavebase.cpp 
tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/slavebase.cpp
--- tdelibs/tdeio/tdeio/slavebase.cpp	2013-08-15 16:35:14.000000000 
-0500
+++ tdelibs.new/tdeio/tdeio/slavebase.cpp	2013-08-15 
18:35:12.114855058 -0500
@@ -70,6 +70,7 @@
 #ifdef HAVE_BACKTRACE
 void print_trace()
 {
+#ifdef WITH_TDEIOSLAVE_BACKTRACE
 	void *array[10];
 	size_t size;
 	char **strings;
@@ -85,6 +86,7 @@
 	}
 
 	free (strings);
+#endif
 }
 #endif
 #endif
=====================================

Darrell