diff --git a/templates/scripts/includes/deployment.sh b/templates/scripts/includes/deployment.sh
index 8ba9d3c..83fb20f 100755
--- a/templates/scripts/includes/deployment.sh
+++ b/templates/scripts/includes/deployment.sh
@@ -2144,6 +2144,19 @@ if [ -d "${TARGET}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles" ]; then
   rmdir "${TARGET}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles"
 fi
 
+# MT#57643: dpkg >=1.20.0 (as present on Debian/bookworm and newer) no
+# longer creates /var/lib/dpkg/available (see #647911). mmdebstrap relies
+# on and uses dpkg of the host system. But on Debian releases until and
+# including buster, dpkg fails to operate with e.g. `dpkg
+# --set-selections`, if /var/lib/dpkg/available doesn't exist, so let's
+# ensure /var/lib/dpkg/available exists on Debian releases <=buster.
+case "${DEBIAN_RELEASE}" in
+  stretch|buster)
+    echo "Generating /var/lib/dpkg/available to work around dpkg >=1.20.0 issue for Debian release '${DEBIAN_RELEASE}'"
+    chroot "${TARGET}" /usr/lib/dpkg/methods/apt/update /var/lib/dpkg
+    ;;
+esac
+
 # MT#7805
 if "$NGCP_INSTALLER" ; then
   cat << EOT | augtool --root="$TARGET"