Supported host distributions
You should be able to run Scratchbox on any Linux distribution. Scratchbox installation includes all the libraries and tools (except nfs server) it needs so there are only requirements for the kernel. Kernel should have support for following:
binfmt_misc kernel module
NFS server support (if you want to use sbrsh cpu transparency)
However some Linux distributions have interesting issues:
vdso (Virtual Dynamic Shared Object)
Most modern kernels (at least Fedora core and Debian lenny) seem to have this option on. It breaks Scratchbox. You cannot even install SB with this option on.
Solution (64-bit kernels): add "vdso32=0" to kernel boot command line
Solution (32-bit Fedora 7, Debian lenny and newer): echo 0 >/proc/sys/vm/vdso_enabled
Solution (32-bit older): echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/vdso
For more information see DisablingVdso.
NFS kernel daemon
chroot to NFS mounted directories does not work with some target kernels if host has NFS kernel daemon (we don't know why).
Solution: Use NFS userspace daemon