Hi Scott, the "something else" part is the funny one :P. Yes, there are some very generic alternatives to vmdebootstrap - you might guess them: * debootstrap * cdebootstrap
Thats all, downside is that one has to write all the things that vmdebootstrap provides new - so there are only two chances: * write all the glue code and the missing parts from the scratch (should be no problem, it has be done before) * wait for the successor of vmdebootstrap and write another wrapper based on a wrapper for debootstrap. My 2 cent Alf PS: If that sounds to negative - sorry, was not my intention. But there are only two options - make a debian iso wrapper around (c)debootstrap - it's done in the former sidux/aptosid's f.u.l.l.s.t.o.r.y and is called pyfll (https://github.com/fullstory/pyfll and https://github.com/fullstory/python-fll and some other glue packages (fll-liveinitscripts and -initramfs) - downside here: It's python2 and would need to be ported and cleaned up for long time usage in debian. PPS: The code could be stripped down to the really needed functions for debian - and should provide the needed interfaces for derivatives.