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[windows-11-arm] Pre-install msys2 #14087
Description
Type of issue
- Error when running a workflow.
- Request for additional tools or software for an existing image.
- Request for a new image, Linux or Windows.
- Other
Describe the issue
MSYS2 is not installed in C:\msys64 as it is on other Windows images
To Reproduce
try using msys2/setup-msys2 action with release: false option.
Expected behavior
C:\msys64 exists and contains MSYS2
Additional context
I thought about using msys2/setup-msys2 with release: true and location: C:\, but the action checks for and errors out in that configuration because
'location' cannot be 'C:' because that contains the built-in MSYS2 installation in GitHub Actions environments. See option 'release', in order to use that installation: https://github.com/msys2/setup-msys2#release
Reacted by Lars Kanis, Viktor Szakats, Björn Kautler and Markus Mützel
Activity
Kichura commentedon Apr 18, 2025
MSYS2 currently does not exist as an native ARM64 program and cannot be deployed to this image unfortunately.
jeremyd2019 commentedon Apr 18, 2025
It runs fine under emulation. And based on some of these other issues asking for native ARM64 variants of things instead of the x86_64 versions (like actions/partner-runner-images#85), it's apparently not an issue to install x86_64 things.
jeremyd2019 commentedon Apr 19, 2025
Actually, there is some bug going on with the Qt installer (msys2/msys2-installer#96), but the sfx is probably what you'd want to use anyway (it's what I've used on self-hosted Windows-on-arm64 runners as long as I've had to provide them for msys2 due to GitHub lacking them).
[-][windows-11-arm] Install msys2[/-][+][windows-11-arm] Pre-install msys2[/+]jeremyd2019 commentedon Apr 24, 2025
There are cases where x86_64 tools are currently necessary to build aarch64 binaries, particularly MSYS2. MSYS2 is a Cygwin fork specifically for providing UNIX tools necessary to build native win32 (mingw-w64) binaries of open-source packages that are frequently UNIX-first. The toolchain support is not there to even start to port Cygwin to native aarch64 (it relies on GNU-specific things that are not in LLVM or MSVC), but it's still a useful tool to then get a large number of native aarch64 open-source libraries and tools. https://packages.msys2.org/packages/?repo=clangarm64
robtaylor commentedon Jun 19, 2025
I can confirm that both mingw-w64 x86_64 and aarch64 MSYS2 work well on windows-arm.
The msys2 installer is indeed not native arm, but will install an aarch64 system, which has a pretty well populated package set (https://packages.msys2.org/packages/?repo=clangarm64)
ISTR that it took a bit of fiddling - Had to use the latest installer build self extracting archive (.sfx.exe)
Alovchin91 commentedon Aug 2, 2025
Bump. MSYS2 is a no-brainer. It's the basis of Git for Windows. Not sure why it's even being debated.
jeremyd2019 commentedon Aug 30, 2025
The msys2 qt-based installer now has an arm64 binary. It's the same contents as the x86_64 one, but with an arm64 installer due to a bug that the x86_64 one was not working right on arm64 windows. For unattended install like setting up a runner, it'd still be better to use the sfx.
Artoria2e5 commentedon Nov 22, 2025
MSYS2 now exists as a native thing on ARM, with its own ARM-based installer and an ARM-based prefix. Not providing MSYS2 makes windows-11-arm too different from GitHub's windows runners.
lazka commentedon Jun 4, 2026
Only the installer is ARM not the content, see above. Either way, x86 emulation works fine.
kmilos commentedon Sep 4, 2026
Doesn't seem to be in the 20260830 image yet, although the commit is in that tag?
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