Perhaps Slackware has something similar?
Once you have the chroot, it is very simple to use:
chroot /path/to/chroot/root/directory
Then do whatever compilations, etc. inside that
shell. When done, a
simple "exit" command will return you to the host system.
I can get chroot set up on Slackware. Certainly would be faster than the virtual machine.
I don't know why the VM is exceptionally slower with compiling but is reasonably
snappy with basic usage.