Ubuntu 24.04 runner does not include various dependencies of vcpkg

[MarkCallow]

Description

vcpkg is pre-installed in the Ubuntu 24.04 (ubuntu-latest) runner but

1. out of the box it does not support use of NuGet for caching packages due to missing mono-complete package,
2. when building a project's dependencies using automated manifest mode vcpkg builds 16 packages while on Windows and macOS runners only 3 packages are built. The 3 packages are those listed by vcpkg depend-info sdl2 the single package which is my project's dependency. The additional packages built on Ubuntu must be dependencies of vcpkg.

Since vcpkg is pre-installed I expect everything it needs to be pre-installed as well. Arguably mono-complete is only needed by those doing NuGet caching but I expect that to be a large number of users given the time saving on CI runs.

Platforms affected

• Azure DevOps
• GitHub Actions - Standard Runners
• GitHub Actions - Larger Runners

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• macOS 13
• macOS 13 Arm64
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025

Image version and build link

A log of a build showing all the packages built on Ubuntu can be found at https://github.com/KhronosGroup/lodepng/actions/runs/15530986521/job/43719740596. Look at the "Build utilities and tests" step.

Note that I have not tried the Ubuntu 22.04 runner.

Is it regression?

I don't know. This is the first time I have tried vcpkg on an Ubuntu runner.

Expected behavior

I expected all packages which are dependencies of vcpkg to be installed in the runner and I hoped that packages needed to support using NuGet caching would also be installed.

Actual behavior

mono-complete is not installed. Neither are the following packages

The following packages will be built and installed:
  * dbus[core,systemd]:x64-linux@1.16.2#1
  * expat:x64-linux@2.7.1
  * gperf:x64-linux@3.1#7
  * libcap:x64-linux@2.73
  * liblzma:x64-linux@5.8.1
  * libmount:x64-linux@2.40
  * libsystemd:x64-linux@256.4
  * libxcrypt:x64-linux@4.4.38
  * lz4:x64-linux@1.10.0
    sdl2[core,dbus,ibus,wayland,x11]:x64-linux@2.32.6
  * vcpkg-cmake:x64-linux@2024-04-23
  * vcpkg-cmake-config:x64-linux@2024-05-23
  * vcpkg-cmake-get-vars:x64-linux@2024-09-22
  * vcpkg-make:x64-linux@2025-04-25
  * vcpkg-tool-meson:x64-linux@1.7.2
  * zstd:x64-linux@1.5.7

sdl2 is the dependency for my project. The output of vcpkg depend-info sdl2 is

$ vcpkg depend-info sdl2
Fetching registry information from https://github.com/microsoft/vcpkg (HEAD)...
vcpkg-cmake: 
vcpkg-cmake-config: 
sdl2: vcpkg-cmake, vcpkg-cmake-config

vcpkg-cmake and vcpkg-cmake-config have no dependencies according to vcpkg depend-info so all those other packages listed above appear to be for vcpkg so should be pre-installed in the runner along with vcpkg.

Repro steps

1. Fork https://github.com/KhronosGroup/lodepng.
2. In the fork run the "Build lodepng Utilities and Tests and Run Tests" workflow in the nuget_test branch. Observe packages needed on Linux. Note, since the NuGet cache is now working in this branch the packages won't actually be built.

[RaviAkshintala]

Hi @MarkCallow Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into this issue and will update you after investigating.

[MarkCallow]

I just changed my workflow to use the pre-installed vcpkg when building on macOS runners. The macOS runner includes mono and seemingly everything else. needed vcpkg only builds and installs 3 packages, the same as on the Windows runners and the same as when the workflow was installing vcpkg itself.

[MarkCallow]

ubuntu-22.04 contains mono-complete and libldtl-dev, the two packages I had to install on ubuntu-latest (ubuntu-24.04) via apt-get to get vcpkg to succeed. To be clear that these are missing is a separate issue from all the packages vcpkg downloaded and built which are not dependencies of the single package my app needs.

[Prabhatkumar59]

Hi @MarkCallow - Thanks for your input. Noted your point. Just confirm here please — is the issue fully resolved on your side now, or is there anything else still blocking you?

[MarkCallow]

Hi @MarkCallow - Thanks for your input. Noted your point. Just confirm here please — is the issue fully resolved on your side now, or is there anything else still blocking you?

Yes it was resolved by installing mono-complete and libldtl-dev. Thanks for asking. The extra packages built by vcpkg are a build-delaying annoyance not a showstopper.

[Prabhatkumar59]

@MarkCallow - Thanks for the confirmation on your issue resolution, we are closing this issue for now. Feel free to reach out to us for any other queries. Thanks.


[MarkCallow]

@Prabhatkumar59 why are you closing this? The runner image is still missing mono-complete and libldtl-dev. This should not be closed until they have been added. Please reopen the issue.

[MarkCallow]

Are mono-complete and libldtl-dev installed in ubuntu-24.04 runner version 20250615.1.0? Is that why you closed this? Please answer my questions. For me to find out I have to remove my workaround and run my workflow which takes time.

I was on the verge of opening a new issue, given your apparent refusal to reopen this, when I noticed the runner had been updated. If I don't get any answers I will open the new issue.