The correction to this problem:
add gen=1 to bbqcoin.conf, and ignore the miner tab.
Works for me.
BBQcoin still starts up extremely slowly, but it's not a big problem.
Well, you see, CPU mining BBQ is not worth it, too much CPU power and less returns. So it's pointless, in fact the only reason CPU mining exists in the reference clients is for informaton purposes only.