diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c31e5c9..60444ca 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -34,3 +34,7 @@ overlay/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/openvpn@client.service
 src/ipxe_local/ssl/keys
 src/ipxe_local/ssl/crts
 src/ipxe_local/ssl/txt
+
+# and we DEFINITELY don't need these.
+__pycache__/
+*.pyc
diff --git a/bdisk/base.py b/bdisk/base.py
index 8051f33..4517818 100755
--- a/bdisk/base.py
+++ b/bdisk/base.py
@@ -4,17 +4,26 @@ import os
 import re
 import hashlib
 import gnupg
+import tarfile
 from urllib.request import urlopen
 
+def arch_chk(arch):
+    if arch in ['i686', 'x86_64']:
+        return(arch)
+    else:
+        exit("{0} is not a valid architecture. Must be one of i686 or x86_64.".format(arch))
+
 def download_tarball(arch, dlpath):
     # arch - should be i686 or x86_64
     # returns path/filename e.g. /some/path/to/file.tar.gz
     # we use .gnupg since we'll need it later.
+    arch_chk(arch)
     try:
         os.makedirs(dlpath + '/.gnupg')
     except OSError as exception:
         if exception.errno != errno.EEXIST:
             raise
+    tarball_path = dlpath + '/.latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz'
     #mirror = 'http://mirrors.kernel.org/archlinux'
     mirror = 'https://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux'
     rlsdir = mirror + '/iso/latest'
@@ -28,7 +37,7 @@ def download_tarball(arch, dlpath):
     tarball = [filename.group(0) for l in list(sha_dict.keys()) for filename in [pattern.search(l)] if filename][0]
     sha1 = sha_dict[tarball]
     # all that lousy work just to get a sha1 sum. okay. so.
-    if os.path.isfile(dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz'):
+    if os.path.isfile(tarball_path):
         pass
     else:
         # fetch the tarball...
@@ -37,25 +46,50 @@ def download_tarball(arch, dlpath):
         with open(dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz', 'wb') as f:
             f.write(tarball_dl)
         tarball_dl.close()
-    tarball_hash = hashlib.sha1(open(dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz', 'rb').read()).hexdigest()
+    tarball_hash = hashlib.sha1(open(tarball_path, 'rb').read()).hexdigest()
     if tarball_hash != sha1:
         exit("There was a failure fetching the tarball and the wrong version exists on the filesystem.\nPlease try again later.")
     else:
         # okay, so the sha1 matches. let's verify the signature.
-        # we don't want to futz with the users normal gpg.
-        gpg = gnupg.GPG(gnupghome=dlpath + '/.gnupg')
-        input_data = gpg.gen_key_input(name_email='tempuser@nodomain.tld',passphrase='placeholder_passphrase')
+        # we don't want to futz with the user's normal gpg.
+        gpg = gnupg.GPG(gnupghome = dlpath + '/.gnupg')
+        input_data = gpg.gen_key_input(name_email = 'tempuser@nodomain.tld', passphrase = 'placeholder_passphrase')
         key = gpg.gen_key(input_data)
         keyid = '7F2D434B9741E8AC'
+        gpg.recv_keys('pgp.mit.edu', keyid)
         gpg_sig = tarball + '.sig'
         sig_dl = urlopen(rlsdir + gpg_sig)
-        with open(dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz.sig', 'wb') as f:
+        with open(tarball_path + '.sig', 'wb+') as f:
             f.write(sig_dl)
         sig_dl.close()
-        sig = dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz.sig'
-        gpg.verify_file(dlpath + '/latest.' + arch + '.tar.gz', sig_file = sig)
+        sig = tarball_path + '.sig'
+        tarball_data = open(tarball_path, 'rb')
+        tarball_data_in = tarball_data.read()
+        gpg_verify = gpg.verify_data(sig, tarball_data_in)
+        tarball_data.close()
+        if not gpg_verify:
+            exit("There was a failure checking the signature of the release tarball. Please investigate.")
+        os.remove(sig)
 
+    return(tarball_path)
 
-    return(sha1sum)
+def unpack_tarball(tarball_path, destdir):
+    # Make the dir if it doesn't exist
+    try:
+        os.makedirs(destdir)
+    except OSError as exception:
+        if exception.errno != errno.EEXIST:
+            raise
+    # Open and extract the tarball
+    tar = tarfile.open(tarball_path, 'r:gz')
+    tar.extractall(path = destdir)
+    tar.close()
+    return(True)
 
-print(download_tarball('x86_64'))
+def build_chroot(arch, destdir, dlpath):
+    unpack_me = unpack_tarball(download_tarball(arch_chk(arch), dlpath), destdir)
+    if unpack_me:
+        pass
+    else:
+        exit("Something went wrong when trying to unpack the tarball.")
+    return(destdir)