No way to natively build for the non-host arch
Metadata
Current evaluation
A 2018 request for native i386 builds through matching LXD or Multipass environments remains open and untriaged; current --build-for support and provider image coverage need review.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The report has no labels, maintainer comments, or other sign of triage. It specifies the desired CLI and provider behavior and identifies CanonicalLtd/multipass#886 and missing i386 minimal images, but the current tree exposes --build-for, lists i386 for local builds, and filters local plans by build-on, so maintainers must verify whether modern providers already cover this case and which bases remain relevant.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
8
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
76
Actionability:
61
Issue body
installed: 3.6 (3059) 59MB classic
Just now I was trying to reproduce a snap build failure that happened on i386 but not amd64. This computer can natively run i386 code, VMs and containers, so I was hoping that snapcraft would let me do a native build. It couldn't :(.
I just filed a multipass bug (https://github.com/CanonicalLtd/multipass/issues/886) requesting `multipass launch bionic/i386` support, à la LXD. Basically I'm asking for snapcraft to support the same, i.e. the ability to do:
$ snapcraft --arch=i386
and it'd launch an i386 VM or container.
I noticed also that `--use-lxd` hits cloud-images.ubuntu.com directly to get a minimal image, and only amd64 images are published there (see https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/minimal/releases/bionic/release/). That means it's not possible to extend this method to support multiple arches, i.e. `snapcraft --arch=i386 --use-lxd` wouldn't work. The non-minimal images (https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/18.04/release/) have more arches. So I suppose to fix LXD properly we'd have to either switch to non-minimal images or convince the team to produce minimal for more arches.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
8
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
76
Actionability:
61
|
needs triage | A 2018 request for native i386 builds through matching LXD or Multipass environments remains open and untriaged; current --build-for support and provider image coverage need review. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
8
Complexity:
65
Confidence:
90
Actionability:
65
|
needs triage | 2018 request to run native i386 Snapcraft builds in a matching VM or container; remains unlabelled and untriaged, with native i386 provider support and current-base viability unverified. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
25
Quick Win:
10
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
65
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | 2018 feature request for snapcraft to build for non-host architectures (e.g. --arch=i386) by launching a matching VM/container. Zero comments, no labels, dormant 7+ years; modern snapcraft now supports cross-arch builds via --build-for, so the request is effectively fulfilled. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
50
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to add native cross-architecture build support to snapcraft via a --arch flag. The issue has been completely inactive for ~7 years with no maintainer response, labels, or assignee. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
100
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to add native cross-architecture build support via a --arch flag. Unlabelled, zero comments, and inactive for over seven years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
80
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to enable native cross-architecture builds in snapcraft via multipass/LXD. Issue is seven years old with no maintainer response or labels. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
multipass#886
(confidence 95%)
The report explicitly links the upstream request for multipass launch bionic/i386 support.
Related issues
No related issues found above the similarity threshold.