There is debtakeover, but the time i tried it, it failed (sure, i had no access to the box, only ssh, and it was x86), but i am not sure debtakeover is YDL knowledgeable.
What about debootstrap or cdebootstrap? I tried it once on a x86, and it was succesfull (it gave me a good chroot base system).
Friendly, Sven Luther
EddyP