Excellent, just got mutt working. Only trouble I found covered in another thread just before posting a question here... http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=28325

Basically, you also need to apt-get install ncurses-base to avoid an error about missing xterm when you try to start mutt.

Also found http://wiki.maemo.org/Root_access which describes all the ways to get root so you can run apt-get, and warns against RD mode unless you really need it. Perhaps the wiki page above would be a better place to put these updates? Thanks again!