diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 54cc87501d103add0f43a91bce9a1541977fad0b..aca7b1f31711e35255b6929edc7c18506ae44ef6 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -161,6 +161,7 @@ tarball at `_build/sysroot.tar.gz` or unpack a sysroot into
 `_build/sysroot`, and prefix those commands with
 `./sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py`:
 
+    ./sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py apt-get update
     ./sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py meson ...
 
 (Or put them in different locations and pass the `--sysroot` and
diff --git a/sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py b/sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py
index 948b1e3107cf58dd887fcc09c044b0e2635a5284..eb875f4270adecabf7cd09f2b69f7751fe9137d0 100755
--- a/sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py
+++ b/sysroot/run-in-sysroot.py
@@ -99,6 +99,9 @@ def main():
         [
             'bwrap',
             '--ro-bind', abs_sysroot, '/',
+            '--bind',
+            os.path.join(abs_sysroot, 'var', 'lib', 'apt'),
+            '/var/lib/apt',
             '--dev-bind', '/dev', '/dev',
             '--ro-bind', '/etc/resolv.conf', '/etc/resolv.conf',
             '--proc', '/proc',