Hi, there was a thread "Any way to install packages+run autopkgtests on porterbox machines?" in march already. Let me add another problematic use case.
I'm trying to work on bug #1078549 about the coq-elpi package on ppc64el. With platti.debian.org I could confirm the failure with the package currently in Debian, and see that it would worsen with the next release of coq-elpi (!). So the next step to investigate the matter was to reproduce it with the latest upstream of its dependency elpi (which I suspect of being the culprit even though its successful compilation with its extensive compile-time testing says otherwise). And of course, this is where I came to my wits' end: I can compile the new elpi successfully... but I have no way to install this new elpi binary packages in the schroot to test it against different coq-elpi! I'm quite fond of the single-page just-follow-the-steps tutorial: https://dsa.debian.org/doc/schroot/ hence my dream is to be able to do something like the following to get not only a cross-compilation but also cross-running through whatever virtual system (say provided by a dd-cross-schroot package) : echo -n "Target arch: " && read targetarch && echo -n "Session ID: " && read sessionid && dd-cross-schroot-setup - s $sessionid -a $targetarch /* much, much work would be done here */ dd-cross-schroot-cmd -s $sessionid -a $targetarch apt-get build-dep foo dd-cross-schroot-run -s $sessionid -a $targetarch /* do what needs done for foo on the target architecture */ dd-cross-schroot-cmd -s $sessionid -a $targetarch apt-get install ./*foo*_3.14-159_$targetarch.deb dd-cross-schroot-cmd -s $sessionid -a $targetarch apt-get build-dep bar /* installation of its dep foo is hence covered by a local package */ dd-cross-schroot-run -s $sessionid -a $targetarch /* do what I needs done for bar on the target architecture */ dd-cross-schroot-clean -s $sessionid -a $targetarch Of course, that wouldn't be as good as an actual box of the right architecture, but it would definitely help getting many problems solved. As you may have noticed from the above I'm quite clueless on how schroot and cross-compilation work - and to be honest, I'd like to stay so as I have other itches to scratch and hopefully other areas of expertise - but I'm hopeful others have the competence and the will to provide solutions. Cheers, J.Puydt
