diff --git a/coverage.sh b/coverage.sh
index 4420bc9..cb4eebc 100755
--- a/coverage.sh
+++ b/coverage.sh
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ if [ ! -e shared/mmdebstrap ] || [ mmdebstrap -nt shared/mmdebstrap ]; then
 fi
 
 starttime=
-total=101
+total=102
 i=1
 
 print_header() {
@@ -725,6 +725,50 @@ else
 	echo "HAVE_QEMU != yes -- Skipping test..."
 fi
 
+print_header "mode=$defaultmode,variant=apt: test i386 (which can be executed without qemu)"
+cat << END > shared/test.sh
+#!/bin/sh
+set -eu
+export LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
+# remove qemu just to be sure
+apt-get remove --yes qemu-user-static binfmt-support qemu-user
+$CMD --mode=$defaultmode --variant=apt --architectures=i386 $DEFAULT_DIST /tmp/debian-chroot.tar $mirror
+# we ignore differences between architectures by ignoring some files
+# and renaming others
+{ tar -tf /tmp/debian-chroot.tar \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/bin/i386$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib/ld-linux\.so\.2$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-linux\.so\.2$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/lib/gcc/i686-linux-gnu/9/$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/man/man8/i386\.8\.gz$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/doc/[^/]\+/changelog\.Debian\.i386\.gz$' \
+	| sed 's/i386-linux-gnu/x86_64-linux-gnu/' \
+	| sed 's/i386/amd64/';
+} | sort > tar2.txt
+{ cat tar1.txt \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/bin/i386$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/bin/x86_64$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib64/$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib64/ld-linux-x86-64\.so\.2$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/9/$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ld-linux-x86-64\.so\.2$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmvec-2\.[0-9]\+\.so$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmvec\.so\.1$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/doc/[^/]\+/changelog\.Debian\.amd64\.gz$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/doc/hostname/changelog\.amd64\.gz$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/man/man8/i386\.8\.gz$' \
+	| grep -v '^\./usr/share/man/man8/x86_64\.8\.gz$';
+} | sort | diff -u - tar2.txt
+rm /tmp/debian-chroot.tar
+END
+if [ "$HAVE_QEMU" = "yes" ]; then
+	./run_qemu.sh
+else
+	echo "HAVE_QEMU != yes -- Skipping test..."
+fi
+
 # to test foreign architecture package installation we choose a package which
 #   - is not part of the native installation set
 #   - does not have any dependencies
diff --git a/make_mirror.sh b/make_mirror.sh
index 2b9fa6c..b747ee6 100755
--- a/make_mirror.sh
+++ b/make_mirror.sh
@@ -43,10 +43,9 @@ newmirrordir="$newcachedir/debian"
 
 mirror="http://deb.debian.org/debian"
 security_mirror="http://security.debian.org/debian-security"
-arch1=$(dpkg --print-architecture)
-arch2=armhf
-if [ "$arch1" = "$arch2" ]; then
-	arch2=amd64
+if [ "$(dpkg --print-architecture)" != amd64 ]; then
+	echo "script only supports being run on amd64" >&2
+	exit 1
 fi
 components=main
 
@@ -245,8 +244,12 @@ END
 	find "$rootdir" -depth -print0 | xargs -0 rmdir
 }
 
-for nativearch in "$arch1" "$arch2"; do
+for nativearch in amd64 armhf i386; do
 	for dist in stable testing unstable; do
+		# only store non-amd64 architectures for $DEFAULT_DIST
+		if [ $nativearch != amd64 ] && [ $DEFAULT_DIST != $dist ]; then
+			continue
+		fi
 		cat << END | update_cache "$dist" "$nativearch"
 deb [arch=$nativearch] $mirror $dist $components
 END