Version 1.13.0 not working on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ARM

[agarny]

I have just downloaded ninja 1.13.0 and tried it on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ARM and got the following:

$ ninja --version
ninja: /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by ninja)
ninja: /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.32' not found (required by ninja)

Was dropping support for GLIBC_2.35 in ninja planned on ARM? Ubuntu 22.04 LTS is officially supported until April 2027, so I am surprised that support for it was dropped just like this. (To drop Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is fine since official support for it ended in May 2025.)

I explicitly mentioned Ubuntu 22.04 LTS ARM because everything is indeed fine with Ubuntu 22.04 LTS Intel.

[jhasse]

I think at the time there were no Ubuntu 22.04 ARM runners. The old method using emulation was very very slow, see: 9a87d2c

But I found https://github.com/actions/partner-runner-images/blob/main/images/arm-ubuntu-22-image.md so I guess we could just change the runner from 24.04-arm to 22.04-arm?

[digit-google]

Using 22.04-arm should fix this indeed.

Another option is to use the arm64 version of rocky linux 8 in a container, as is done for the linux/x64 builder, but that would be a much larger change.

[jhasse]

@userdocs Do you remember why you used 24.04 instead of 22.04?

Another option is to use the arm64 version of rocky linux 8 in a container, as is done for the linux/x64 builder, but that would be a much larger change.

I would like this, because I think Ubuntu sucks. But my hate isn't big enough to put in the work :D

[userdocs]

@jhasse at the time of the commit it was because ubuntu-latest was transitioning to 24.04 and when I changed from emulation using ubuntu-latest to the native arm runners, there is no latest option.

ubuntu-latest should be fully rolled out to be 24.04 now by default on GitHub action runners.

https://github.com/actions/runner-images?tab=readme-ov-file#available-images

https://github.com/actions/partner-runner-images?tab=readme-ov-file#available-images

I used ubuntu-24.04-arm. I don't think I tried ubuntu-22.04-arm

A solution would be to try ubuntu-22.04-arm and see, if you required glibc linking to support more platforms from your released binary. Since that is the real nature of this issue issue. The target platforms for your releases here, not the building on platforms by users.

Those are the only two official arm images to select from. Rocky would be emulation again.

I think I should try ubuntu-22.04-arm first and see?

[userdocs]

@agarny does this binary work for you? https://github.com/userdocs/ninja/actions/runs/15882502800/artifacts/3403422234

from this build https://github.com/userdocs/ninja/actions/runs/15882502800/job/44786282517

[userdocs]

Another option is to use the arm64 version of rocky linux 8 in a container, as is done for the linux/x64 builder, but that would be a much larger change.

So as far as I understand the platform, that will still be emulation via qemu and goes back to being slow.

the only other way (i'm aware of) to

1: not use ubuntu
2: I guess also avoid Debian?
3: not emulate

is to crossbuild. That's how I do it using alpine/musl, statically linking and crossbuilding my target here

It's fast and you don't get that glibc version issue. Only maybe really old kernels (4 ish) lacking features.

[agarny]

@agarny does this binary work for you? https://github.com/userdocs/ninja/actions/runs/15882502800/artifacts/3403422234

from this build https://github.com/userdocs/ninja/actions/runs/15882502800/job/44786282517

Hi @userdocs, yes, I can confirm that this binary works fine for me on both Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

[userdocs]

the linked pr should resolve this.

[userdocs]

@jhasse @digit-google I was incorrect about using containers with the arm runners. It's just pulls the arm64 version of the container by default and I was confusing x86_64 runners behaviour. So I tested some stuff to see if it was worth it.

• Rockylinux 9 is the fastest build linked to glibc 2.34
• Rockylinux 8 is the slowest but would be linked to glibc 2.28, so widest reach.
• Jammy native is second fastest linked to glibc 2.35, LTS to April 2027
• Bullseye is the third fastest linked to glibc 2.31, LTS to August 2026

So this can be done reasonably easily with minor changes to that job. Here is a link to the action and artifacts

https://github.com/userdocs/ninja/actions/runs/15900259833

What do you think?

[agarny]

@userdocs, just confirm that, as expected, all four versions work fine with both Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

[userdocs]

@agarny thanks. The original oversight should be resolved by any method. It just comes down to how they want to proceed with resolving it.

I saw Rockylinux 8 is at fixed 8.10 and has EOL in May 31, 2029 so that's a potential valid option, I think.

https://wiki.rockylinux.org/rocky/version/#current-supported-releases

The 98s (rocky 9) vs 134s(rocky 8) (36s diff) is not really an issue in the context of all the jobs in the run, When it was 10 minutes + it was the last job to complete.