diff --git a/checkout-translations-branch b/checkout-translations-branch
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..cd235f8b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/checkout-translations-branch
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+set -eux
+
+branch=$1
+target="$(readlink -f "${2}")"
+
+tmpdir="$(mktemp -d)"
+cd "${tmpdir}"
+
+cleanup () {
+    rm -rf "${tmpdir}"
+}
+
+trap cleanup EXIT
+
+mkdir -p $target
+
+bzr branch $branch checkout
+for po in checkout/*.po; do
+    msgfmt "${po}" -o "${target}/$(basename "${po}" .po).mo"
+done
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
index 45dcf710..ecbec401 100644
--- a/debian/control
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Architecture: any
 Depends: ${misc:Depends},
          apt-utils,
          attr,
+         bzr,
          debootstrap,
          distro-info,
          dosfstools,
@@ -18,6 +19,7 @@ Depends: ${misc:Depends},
          gdisk,
          genisoimage,
          germinate (>= 1.25.1),
+         gettext,
          git,
          gnupg,
          grep-dctrl,
diff --git a/debian/install b/debian/install
index 818c3d11..500ef28d 100644
--- a/debian/install
+++ b/debian/install
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ get-ppa-fingerprint usr/share/livecd-rootfs
 minimize-manual usr/share/livecd-rootfs
 magic-proxy usr/share/livecd-rootfs
 lp-in-release usr/share/livecd-rootfs
+checkout-translations-branch usr/share/livecd-rootfs