[PLUG] Towards a custom minimalist bootable Debian installation via dedbootstrap

[Richard Owlett]

Debian Squeeze was my introduction to any Linux.
I am and will use the current stable release.
It is unnecessarily toooo big.
The underlying problem is it {and particularly the installation DVD} is 
designed to be "all things to all people".

Back when I started I had some success using preseeding to do 
installations with different configurations supporting different goals. 
It was a slow and clunky process. I was pointed to debootstrap whose 
documentation and tutorials did more to confuse than enlighten. I now 
know enough to recognize why the tutorials made the assumptions they did.

My use case is peculiar. (pun intended ;)

The target will be a separate partition of the machine running debootstrap.
The target will be the same release (and the same architecture) as the 
primary system. {my system can run either i386 or AMD64}
I require that the current grub be able to launch the target after 
update-grub having been run by the primary system. [I find it *VERY* 
convenient for grub to be resident installed only *ONCE*.]

The problem with the documentation/tutorials were a permutation of 
assumptions of about the new system:
1. being run via chroot on the current install.
2. be running a different release.
3. being run on a different processor.
4. etc

None of those apply.
The closest I've come is a Ubuntu oriented article from 2010
[https://www.thegeekstuff.com/2010/01/debootstrap-minimal-debian-ubuntu-installation/].

Pointers to other articles?
[already have >20 of varying relevance ;]

TIA