Step 1.) Upgrade to Debian 11 first
The process to go to Debian 12 is not as smooth as 11, when trying to upgrade from Debian 10. In fact, it doesn't work directly, so you'll first need to follow this guide to update to Debian 11, reboot and come back here if successful.
Step 2.) Update sources.list
Update your /etc/apt/sources.list like this:
deb http://........
In this example we install debian 10 with --variant=minbase which gives us a minimal/tiny install. Don't use variant if you want the full size install.
mkdir /tmp/deb10files
debootstrap --variant=minbase buster /tmp/deb10files/
Did you get an error?
debootstrap --variant=minbase buster /home/theuser/VMs/deb10files/
You'll get this error if you make a directory in your home........