$ debootstrap --arch=i386 slink /tmp/slink http://archive.debian.org/debian /path/to/my/scripts/slink # see also https://github.com/debuerreotype/debuerreotype/pull/125

slink

#
# This script was taken from debootstrap version 0.2.45-0.2, adapted with several changes to match the corresponding changes to "potato" since it was removed, and then hacked to avoid invoking "init u" in postinst scripts (which tries to send SIGHUP to PID 1).
#

mirror_style main
download_style apt var-state
default_mirror http://archive.debian.org/debian
force_md5

work_out_debs () {
    required="base-files base-passwd bash bsdutils debianutils diff dpkg e2fsprogs fileutils findutils grep gzip hostname ldso libdb2 libgdbmg1 libncurses4 ncurses3.4 libpam0g libpam0g-util libpwdb0g libreadlineg2 libstdc++2.9 login makedev mawk modutils mount ncurses-base ncurses-bin newt0.25 passwd perl-base procps sed shellutils slang1 sysklogd sysvinit tar textutils update util-linux whiptail"

    base="adduser ae apt elvis-tiny fbset fdutils console-tools console-tools-libs libdb2 locales modconf netbase textutils telnet"

    case $ARCH in
        "i386")
            required="$required libc6"
            base="$base fdflush isapnptools lilo mbr pciutils psmisc setserial syslinux"
            ;;
    esac
}

first_stage_install () {
    extract $required

    :> "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/status"
    echo > "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/available"

    setup_etc
    echo '# UNCONFIGURED FSTAB FOR BASE SYSTEM' > "$TARGET/etc/fstab"
    chown 0:0 "$TARGET/etc/fstab"; chmod 644 "$TARGET/etc/fstab"

    x_feign_install () {
        local pkg=$1
        local deb="$(debfor $pkg)"
        local ver="$(extract_deb_field "$TARGET/$deb" Version)"

        mkdir -p "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/info"

echo \
"Package: $pkg
Version: $ver
Status: install ok installed" >> "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/status"

        touch "$TARGET/var/lib/dpkg/info/${pkg}.list"
    }

    setup_devices

    x_feign_install dpkg

    mv "$TARGET/usr/bin/perl.dist" "$TARGET/usr/bin/perl"
}

second_stage_install () {
    x_core_install () {
        in_target dpkg --force-depends --install $(debfor "$@")
    }

    setup_proc
    ln "$TARGET/sbin/ldconfig.new" "$TARGET/sbin/ldconfig"
    in_target /sbin/ldconfig

    x_core_install base-files base-passwd ldso
    x_core_install dpkg

    ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC "$TARGET/etc/localtime"

    # the libc6 and sysvinit postinst scripts want to run "init u" to re-exec sysvinit, but that sends SIGHUP to PID 1, which is undesirable (for hopefully obvious reasons), so we have to get a little bit clever while installing libc6 and later before configuring the rest of the system
    x_hack_avoid_postinst_init() {
        local postinst
        for postinst in "$TARGET"/var/lib/dpkg/info/*.postinst; do
            if grep -qE '^[[:space:]]*init[[:space:]]' "$postinst" 2>/dev/null; then
                sed -ri -e 's/^([[:space:]]*)(init[[:space:]])/\1: # \2/' "$postinst"
            fi
        done
    }
    in_target dpkg --force-depends --unpack $(debfor libc6)
    x_hack_avoid_postinst_init
    in_target dpkg --force-depends --configure libc6

    x_core_install perl-base
    x_core_install mawk

    repeatn 5 in_target dpkg --force-depends --unpack $(debfor $required)

    # see above
    x_hack_avoid_postinst_init

    mv "$TARGET/sbin/start-stop-daemon" "$TARGET/sbin/start-stop-daemon.REAL"
    cp "$TARGET/bin/true" "$TARGET/sbin/start-stop-daemon"

    setup_dselect_method apt

    in_target dpkg --configure --pending --force-configure-any --force-depends

    smallyes '' | repeatn 5 in_target dpkg --force-auto-select --force-overwrite \
        --skip-same-version --install $(debfor $base)

    mv "$TARGET/sbin/start-stop-daemon.REAL" "$TARGET/sbin/start-stop-daemon"
}