horde/IMP on hosted server (no root access)?

[Justin Zachor]

Hiya folks. My deepest apologies if this is obvious and your tiered of
being asked, but...

Is it possible to install horde on system where I don't have root
access? Okay, its pretty obvious from the INSTALL doc that root is
needed, but I'm curious if there are any hackers out who've worked out a
method.

I want to install it on a hosted domain (shared server). This server is
running Linux, has 4.0.6 (which presents a problem with said 'manually
upgraded PEAR') and MySQL 3.23.39. I have shell access but not as root
(I can't even chown nobody). 

I made a stab at BasiliX, but had problems due to the ISP running a PHP
INI file that disables allow_call_time_pass_reference calls (PHP3), and
don't know PHP well enough to rewrite the calls myself.

please note that this is an exercise for rolling out webmail on hosted
domains for small client companies, so if horde/IMP is administratively
challenged (requires much maintenance) then it may not be a good choice
for me in this application.

Sooooo, I guess this is really two questions:
	1) Can horde/IMP be installed without root (and can PEAR be upgraded
without root)?
	2) Does anyone know of a comparable IMAP/POP3 webmail that uses MySQL,
provides 
	   addressbook, folders, etc., and is robust (i.e. preserves field data
on reload/back)?
	   (I know there are many webmail frontends out there, but I haven't
found any yet that
	   meet these criteria).

Cheers & Thanks
Justin