problem running StarOffice as non-root

["Agner-Nichols" <agnernichols@olg.com>]

I installed StarOffice (5.2) as root to an i586 running Debian with a 2.2.12
kernel and KDE as the desktop (using Corel 1.1.2).  It runs fine as root,
but I cannot figure out how to get it to run as non-root.  Have tried
symlinking /usr/local/office52/soffice to the user's home (and that just
starts the install script that errors because it can't find
/usr/local/office52/user/sofficerc) as well symlinking
/root/.kde/share/applnk/staroffice to the user's home and neither worked.
(Looks like there is read/execute for user throughout the path for the first
strategy, and yeah, I really didn't think the symlink to /root would work,
but what the heck)

Any ideas?  Is this a general problem with any non-deb binary I install?  I
glanced through the O'Reilley Running Linux to see if it had anything about
installing/managing binaries and didn't notice anything.

thanks in advance