macports without root?

I'm trying to build a macports installation that runs entirely out of a user's home directory. I've compiled macports without launchd support, and set the install user and group to the appropriate user. However, when I try to run "port install mysql5" it fails, apparently because it's trying to chown a file to root. Is this a problem with that port, or does macports require root in general? If it's the latter, any suggestions on how I could go about patching it to allow fully non-root user installations? Paul