ubuntu latest is set to 2404 not 2204 as per documentation

[almmechanics]

Description

Running ubuntu-latest for pipelines report back as 2404 instead of 2204 as per documentation

2025-04-09T08:52:56.8020788Z ##[group]Operating System
2025-04-09T08:52:56.8021015Z Ubuntu
2025-04-09T08:52:56.8021201Z 24.04.2
2025-04-09T08:52:56.8021314Z LTS

SQL Tooling expected for ubuntu-latest is no longer present - not previously documented as a feature of the migration

Platforms affected

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

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 20.04
• 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

Current documentation indicates the Ubuntu image versions as follows

Ubuntu 22.04 ubuntu-22.04 ubuntu-latest OR ubuntu-22.04 Link
Ubuntu 20.04 ubuntu-20.04 ubuntu-20.04 Link
Ubuntu 24.04 ubuntu-24.04 ubuntu-24.04 Link

Taken from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/agents/hosted?view=azure-devops&tabs=yamlUbuntu

Is it regression?

Reported in the logging as 24.04.2 LTS

Expected behavior

Latest to be in sync with the documentation

Actual behavior

Incorrect version being used

Repro steps

1. Create a pipeline with ubuntu-latest as the Agent Specification (YAML or Classic have the same results)
   

2.Create a simple task i.e. a Bash Script to run uname -a
3. Run Pipeline and review the Initialize Job logged output

Reports back as 24.04

[almmechanics]

Copied to https://github.com/microsoft/azure-pipelines-agent/issues/5171 for azure-pipelines-agents #5171

[vidyasagarnimmagaddi]

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


[Stuart-PG]

Can confirm. All of our pipelines using ubuntu:latest as the vmImage broke starting yesterday due to sqlcmd not found. The mssql-tools package is not included in 24.04. Specifying ubuntu-22.04 as the vmImage fixes the broken pipelines.

[caelchristian]

I also ran into this yesterday when trying to reference packages on .Net 9.0 on ubuntu-latest image.

[Prabhatkumar59]

Hi @almmechanics - The changes will be performed by next week, we will update you accordingly. Thanks!

[Prabhatkumar59]

Hi @almmechanics - The changes have been completed and now ubuntu 24 is ubuntu-latest. Please check from your side, closing this issue for now. Thanks!