diff --git a/templates/lxc-debian.in b/templates/lxc-debian.in
index d98af0b..5af040a 100644
--- a/templates/lxc-debian.in
+++ b/templates/lxc-debian.in
@@ -36,13 +36,16 @@ done
 export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
 export GREP_OPTIONS=""
 
-MIRROR=${MIRROR:-http://deb.debian.org/debian}
+DEBIAN_MIRROR=http://deb.debian.org/debian
+DEBIAN_PORTS_MIRROR=${MIRROR:-http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports}
+MIRROR=${MIRROR:-${DEBIAN_MIRROR}}
 SECURITY_MIRROR=${SECURITY_MIRROR:-http://security.debian.org/}
 LOCALSTATEDIR="@LOCALSTATEDIR@"
 LXC_TEMPLATE_CONFIG="@LXCTEMPLATECONFIG@"
 # Allows the lxc-cache directory to be set by environment variable
 LXC_CACHE_PATH=${LXC_CACHE_PATH:-"$LOCALSTATEDIR/cache/lxc"}
 DEBIAN_ARCHIVE_KEYRING=/usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg
+DEBIAN_PORTS_ARCHIVE_KEYRING=/usr/share/keyrings/debian-ports-archive-keyring.gpg
 KEYRING=${KEYRING:-${DEBIAN_ARCHIVE_KEYRING}}
 DOWNLOAD_KEYRING=${DOWNLOAD_KEYRING:-1}
 
@@ -733,6 +736,7 @@ elif [ "$arch" = "mips64" -a "$littleendian" = "yes" ]; then
     arch="mips64el"
 fi
 hostarch=$arch
+packages=
 mainonly=1
 flushcache=0
 
@@ -774,6 +778,21 @@ if [ "$arch" = "x86_64" ]; then
     arch=amd64
 fi
 
+
+testing_release_file=${DEBIAN_MIRROR}/dists/testing/main/binary-${arch}/Release
+if ! wget -q -O /dev/null "${testing_release_file}"; then
+  echo "${arch} does not look like a release architecture, trying debian ports"
+  # non-release architecture; assume debian-ports architecture
+  if [ "${MIRROR}" = "${DEBIAN_MIRROR}" ]; then
+    MIRROR="${DEBIAN_PORTS_MIRROR}"
+  fi
+  if [ "${KEYRING}" = "${DEBIAN_ARCHIVE_KEYRING}" ]; then
+    KEYRING="${DEBIAN_PORTS_ARCHIVE_KEYRING}"
+  fi
+  packages="debian-ports-archive-keyring,${packages}"
+  release="${release:-unstable}"
+fi
+
 if [ "$interpreter" = "" ] ; then
     if [ $hostarch = "i386" -a $arch = "amd64" ]; then
         echo "can't create $arch container on $hostarch"