On Mon, Feb 19, 2024 at 03:37:31PM +0000, Peter Maydell wrote: > Our msys2 32-bit Windows host CI job has been failing recently > because upstream MSYS2 are starting to phase out 32-bit windows > host support and are steadily removing i686 versions of packages. > The latest is dtc: > https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/2177 > > The writing is clearly on the wall for their 32-bit support, judging > from the "2023-12-13 - Starting to drop some 32-bit Packages" news > item at https://www.msys2.org/news/ and associated discussion at > https://github.com/msys2/MINGW-packages/discussions/19326 . > > QEMU on a 32-bit host is not likely to be a great experience, and I > suspect we don't have many users using 32-bit Windows who couldn't > use the 64-bit version instead. Our Download page points users at > MSYS2's packages, and they have already dropped the 32-bit QEMU > package build. Stefan Weil's binaries page, which is the other thing > we link to from Download, has no 32-bit version newer than 7.2.0. > So anybody using 32-bit Windows QEMU must be building it themselves. > Plus, we've already deprecated system emulation on 32-bit x86 hosts, > so the only remaining "supported" config is with the NVMM or WHPX > accelerators.
The other data point is that Win11 is 64-bit only, and IIUC, Win10 was 64-bit only for new OEM installs too, only upgrades or end user installs could choose 32-bit. > > I suggest that we should: > > * remove the msys2-32bit CI job entirely (we will still have at least > compile-time coverage via the cross-win32-system job) > * document that the 32-bit Windows support is deprecated in > docs/about/build-platforms.rst and deprecated.rst > * update our Download page to remove mention of 32-bit Windows > > Any objections? I think that's sane. With regards, Daniel -- |: https://berrange.com -o- https://www.flickr.com/photos/dberrange :| |: https://libvirt.org -o- https://fstop138.berrange.com :| |: https://entangle-photo.org -o- https://www.instagram.com/dberrange :|
