GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
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ChRoot: Multiple Distributions

The chroot allows multiple installs on the one machine without rebooting! In this way you can then keep an older “stable” release that some applications might require, and run those applications as in:

sudo chroot /path/to/chroot /bin/sh

Set it up with (from http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/ch-tips.en.html#s-chroot):

  # cd / 
  # mkdir /sid-root
  # debootstrap sid /sid-root http://ftp.debian.org/debian/
     ... watch it download the whole system
  # echo "proc-sid /sid-root/proc proc none 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
  # mount proc-sid /sid-root/proc -t proc
  # cp /etc/hosts /sid-root/etc/hosts
  # chroot /sid-root /bin/bash
  # apt-setup # set-up /etc/apt/sources.list
  # vi /etc/apt/sources.list # point the source to unstable
  # dselect  # you may use aptitude, install mc and vim :-)

I tried with a local mirror but failed:

  # debootstrap sid /sid-root http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/debian/
  I: Retrieving http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/debian/pool/main/g/
     glibc/libc6_2.3.2-4_i386.deb
  E: Couldn't download libc6