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