Cross-compiling for the same host

One way to iron out cross-compilation problems might be to do a 'cross compile' for the native architecture. So follow all the dependency resolution rules described in the article, not allowing use of an already-installed native package unless it is indeed available for 'any' architecture; somehow (by using a sandbox?) forbid executing locally-installed binaries during the build; do not 'make test'; and so on.

That might give you just enough hassle to fix bugs that will affect true cross-compilation, without the extra hassle of actually dealing with a different architecture or being unable to test the resulting binaries without copying them to another host.