diff --git a/lib/functions/rootfs/create-cache.sh b/lib/functions/rootfs/create-cache.sh
index 9f9a5f84bab6..79e560391b8b 100644
--- a/lib/functions/rootfs/create-cache.sh
+++ b/lib/functions/rootfs/create-cache.sh
@@ -66,8 +66,8 @@ function create_new_rootfs_cache() {
 
 	display_alert "Creating new rootfs cache" "'${cache_name}'" "info"
 
-	create_new_rootfs_cache_via_debootstrap # in rootfs-create.sh
-	create_new_rootfs_cache_tarball         # in rootfs-create.sh
+	create_new_rootfs_cache_via_debootstrap # in rootfs-create.sh; deploys & undeploys the qemu binary
+	create_new_rootfs_cache_tarball         # in rootfs-create.sh; no qemu binary available here
 
 	return 0 # protect against possible future short-circuiting above this
 }
diff --git a/lib/functions/rootfs/rootfs-create.sh b/lib/functions/rootfs/rootfs-create.sh
index 5f18fe24b8bc..d09c5263a89d 100644
--- a/lib/functions/rootfs/rootfs-create.sh
+++ b/lib/functions/rootfs/rootfs-create.sh
@@ -15,12 +15,7 @@ function create_new_rootfs_cache_tarball() {
 	# validate cache_name is set
 	[[ -n "${cache_name}" ]] || exit_with_error "create_new_rootfs_cache_tarball: cache_name is not set"
 
-	# create list of installed packages for debug purposes - this captures it's own stdout.
-	# @TODO: sanity check, compare this with the source of the hash coming from aggregation
-	chroot_sdcard "dpkg -l | grep ^ii | awk '{ print \$2\",\"\$3 }'" > "${cache_fname}.list"
-	echo "${AGGREGATED_ROOTFS_HASH_TEXT}" > "${cache_fname}.hash_text"
-
-	# Show the disk space usage of the rootfs
+	# Show the disk space usage of the rootfs; use only host-side tools, as qemu binary is already undeployed from chroot
 	display_alert "Disk space usage of rootfs" "${RELEASE}:: ${cache_name}" "info"
 	run_host_command_logged "cd ${SDCARD} && " du -h -d 4 -x "." "| sort -h | tail -20"
 	wait_for_disk_sync "after disk-space usage report of rootfs"