NGen - Update of x86 native images failed

[Fazer01]

Description

Hi there,

We are building an windows-2025 image to use in our Virtual machine scale set. During packer build process in the pipeline,we encounter the following error:
`
==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: Update of x86 native images failed with exit code -1

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: At C:\Windows\Temp\script-69b41439-8e96-98c2-7514-be4cedb24c71.ps1:21 char:5

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: + throw "Update of x86 native images failed with exit code $LASTEXI ...

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: + CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (Update of x86 n...th exit code -1:String) [], RuntimeException

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image: + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Update of x86 native images failed with exit code -1

==> windows-2025.azure-arm.image:
`

Possible issue is in the script: actions/runner-images/images/windows/scripts/build/Install-NativeImages.ps1
Where only the x86 step is failing...

What should / could we do to prevent this?

Platforms affected

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

Runner images affected

• Ubuntu 22.04
• Ubuntu 24.04
• Ubuntu Slim
• macOS 14
• macOS 14 Arm64
• macOS 15
• macOS 15 Arm64
• macOS 26
• macOS 26 Arm64
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows Server 2025
• Windows Server 2025 with Visual Studio 2026

Image version and build link

Image: ubuntu-24.04
Version: 20260302.42.1
Included Software: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/blob/ubuntu24/20260302.42/images/ubuntu/Ubuntu2404-Readme.md
Image Release: https://github.com/actions/runner-images/releases/tag/ubuntu24%2F20260302.42

Is it regression?

probably yes.

Expected behavior

Have the packer build command complete succesfully without errors.

Actual behavior

After running for several hours to generate the image, it fails with the message mentioned above.

Repro steps

This is our packer build step.

 - task: PowerShell@2
          displayName: Packer build
          env: 
            ARM_CLIENT_ID: $(AzureClientId)
            ARM_CLIENT_SECRET: $(AzureClientSecret)
            ARM_TENANT_ID: $(AzureTenantId)
            ARM_SUBSCRIPTION_ID: $(SubscriptionId)
            ARM_RESOURCE_GROUP: $(ImageResourceGroupName)
          inputs:
            targetType: inline
            script: | 
              cd $(TemplatesDir)
              Remove-Item build.windows-2022.pkr.hcl
              Remove-Item build.windows-2019.pkr.hcl           
              ls
              packer plugins install github.com/hashicorp/azure
              packer build -var "image_os=win25" `
                           -var "install_password=$(InstallPassword)" `
                           -var "managed_image_name=$(ImageName)" `
                           -var "vm_size=Standard_D2ds_v5" `
                           -var "build_resource_group_name=$(BuildResourceGroupName)" `
                           -var "azure_tags={`"ExcludeMdeAutoProvisioning`":`"True`"}" `
                           .

[v-GeorgyPuzakov]

Hello @Fazer01 ,
We will have a look and try to reproduce and will back to you.