The attached patch includes a fix so that debootstrap can be run in a single patch. Currently, this fails: debootstrap --arch=amd64 buster $(mktemp -d) http://deb.debian.org/debian With this in the log: /gnu/store/ah0rr88xmn28f32whhpbdcxwind0c74z-debootstrap-1.0.114/share/debootstrap/functions: line 1056: chroot: command not found /gnu/store/ah0rr88xmn28f32whhpbdcxwind0c74z-debootstrap-1.0.114/share/debootstrap/functions: line 1062: grep: command not found /gnu/store/ah0rr88xmn28f32whhpbdcxwind0c74z-debootstrap-1.0.114/share/debootstrap/functions: line 1062: head: command not found /gnu/store/ah0rr88xmn28f32whhpbdcxwind0c74z-debootstrap-1.0.114/share/debootstrap/functions: line 1062: cut: command not found /gnu/store/ah0rr88xmn28f32whhpbdcxwind0c74z-debootstrap-1.0.114/share/debootstrap/functions: line 1062: sed: command not found The workaround documented in the package description is to use --foreign-arch and then follow up with a chroot call into to the newly created chroot and finish up running /debootstrap/debootstrap, but this fails for other reasons as well (/bin/sh in /debootstrap/debootstrap is set to /gnu/store.../bin/sh which isn't present in the Debian chroot)... and is a bit cumbersome for the end-user. I *think* the best fix for this is to fix the hard-coded PATH in several places places to also include $PATH, which I've proposed upstream: https://bugs.debian.org/929889 The attached patch approximates the proposed upstream patch for guix, and works for me so you can do a single call to debootstrap without the complicated chroot /debootstrap/debootstrap PATH-setting dance. live well, vagrant