Comment 24 for bug 1042388

$:~/branches/ettercap (master) $ apt-cache show qemu
Package: qemu
Priority: optional
Section: otherosfs
Installed-Size: 556
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <email address hidden>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 1.7.0+dfsg-2ubuntu4~saucy1
Suggests: qemu-user-static
Depends: qemu-system (>= 1.7.0+dfsg-2ubuntu4~saucy1), qemu-user (>= 1.7.0+dfsg-2ubuntu4~saucy1), qemu-utils (>= 1.7.0+dfsg-2ubuntu4~saucy1)
Filename: pool/main/q/qemu/qemu_1.7.0+dfsg-2ubuntu4~saucy1_amd64.deb
Size: 230798

--------------------------------

$ pbuilder-dist sid armhf login
[sudo] password for locutus:
W: /home/locutus/.pbuilderrc does not exist
I: Building the build Environment
I: extracting base tarball [/home/locutus/pbuilder/sid-armhf-base.tgz]

this command runs qemu

ps ax |grep qemu
 1860 pts/8 S 0:00 sudo HOME=/home/locutus ARCHITECTURE=armhf DISTRIBUTION=sid ARCH=armhf DIST=sid DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS= pbuilder --login --distribution sid --buildresult /home/locutus/pbuilder/sid-armhf_result/ --basetgz /home/locutus/pbuilder/sid-armhf-base.tgz --mirror http://ftp.debian.org/debian --debootstrapopts --keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg --components main contrib non-free --debootstrapopts --arch=armhf --debootstrap qemu-debootstrap
 1861 pts/8 S 0:00 /bin/bash /usr/sbin/pbuilder --login --distribution sid --buildresult /home/locutus/pbuilder/sid-armhf_result/ --basetgz /home/locutus/pbuilder/sid-armhf-base.tgz --mirror http://ftp.debian.org/debian --debootstrapopts --keyring=/usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg --components main contrib non-free --debootstrapopts --arch=armhf --debootstrap qemu-debootstrap
 2616 pts/8 S+ 0:00 /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash

I don't see any difference between your and my method, both of them seems to be calling qemu-debootstrap