[Apple mobile] NativeAOT smoke tests fail on all Apple mobile jobs: "You must install or update .NET to run this application."

[matouskozak]

Build Information

Build: https://dev.azure.com/dnceng-public/public/_build/results?buildId=1025934

Build error leg or test failing: nativeaot.SmokeTests.DynamicGenerics

Affected CI jobs:

• ios_arm64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• iossimulator_arm64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• iossimulator_x64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• maccatalyst_arm64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• maccatalyst_x64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• maccatalyst_arm64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests_appsandbox
• maccatalyst_x64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests_appsandbox
• tvos_arm64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests
• tvossimulator_x64_release_allsubsets_nativeaot_runtimetests

Commit range: 199ae88...cc77763

Error log

You must install or update .NET to run this application.

App:
/private/tmp/helix/working/A3B60977/p/xunit/xunit.console.dll
Architecture: x64
Framework:
'Microsoft.NETCore.App', version '10.0.0-preview.4.25217.6' (x64)
.NET location:
/private/tmp/helix/working/A3B60977/p/dotnet-cli/

The following frameworks were found:
  10.0.0-preview.3.25171.5 at [/private/tmp/helix/working/A3B60977/p/dotnet-cli/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Learn more:
https://aka.ms/dotnet/app-launch-failed

To install missing framework, download:
https://aka.ms/dotnet-core-applaunch?framework=Microsoft.NETCore.App&framework_version=10.0.0-preview.4.25217.6&arch=x64&rid=osx-x64&os=osx.15

Error Message

Fill the error message using step by step known issues guidance.

{
  "ErrorMessage": "You must install or update .NET to run this application.",
  "BuildRetry": false,
  "ExcludeConsoleLog": false
}

Known issue validation

Build: 🔎 https://dev.azure.com/dnceng-public/public/_build/results?buildId=1025934
Error message validated: [You must install or update .NET to run this application.]
Result validation: ✅ Known issue matched with the provided build.
Validation performed at: 4/29/2025 1:34:08 PM UTC

Report

Build	Definition	Test	Pull Request
1030263	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.UnitTests.WorkItemExecution	#115163
1030137	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.UnitTests.WorkItemExecution
1029856	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.UnitTests.WorkItemExecution	#114862
1029552	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.UnitTests.WorkItemExecution	#114148
1029501	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.Preinitialization.WorkItemExecution
1029492	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.DynamicGenerics.WorkItemExecution	#114862
1025934	dotnet/runtime	nativeaot.SmokeTests.UnitTests.WorkItemExecution

Summary

24-Hour Hit Count	7-Day Hit Count	1-Month Count
0	7	7

[dotnet-policy-service]

Tagging subscribers to 'os-ios': @vitek-karas, @kotlarmilos, @ivanpovazan, @steveisok, @akoeplinger
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[dotnet-policy-service]

Tagging subscribers to 'os-maccatalyst': @vitek-karas, @kotlarmilos, @ivanpovazan, @steveisok, @akoeplinger
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[dotnet-policy-service]

Tagging subscribers to 'os-tvos': @vitek-karas, @kotlarmilos, @ivanpovazan, @steveisok, @akoeplinger
See info in area-owners.md if you want to be subscribed.

[dotnet-policy-service]

Tagging subscribers to this area: @akoeplinger, @matouskozak, @simonrozsival
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[vitek-karas]

Just to summarize the failure:

• The specific failure is that we're trying to run a .NET program on the helix machine (not on the device) which requires Preview 4 runtime, but the machine only has Preview 3 on it (or in discoverable location).
• We're running xunit.console.dll, it's very likely that the runtime configuration doesn't come from xunit in this case, but from the test we're running. The likely command line (which is unfortunately not visible in the logs) is something like dotnet exec xunit.console.dll --runtimeconfig Test.runtimeconfig.json where the Test.runtimeconfig.json contains the Preview 4 version requirement.

@kotlarmilos would you know why we're running Xunit on the host machine when we're trying to run NativeAOT smoke tests on the device?

The most likely change which cause the break is the dotnet/dotnet source sync (first flow from VMR), but I can't see anything specific which would have caused this.

[filipnavara]

• The specific failure is that we're trying to run a .NET program on the helix machine (not on the device) which requires Preview 4 runtime, but the machine only has Preview 3 on it (or in discoverable location).

This started to happen on my local Windows builds very recently and I thought I was going crazy. For some reason I get runtime config JSON for xunit.console.dll that references Preview 4 which is nowhere on the machine (same machine for building and running the tests).

Here's the full message from my local Windows machine:

  You must install or update .NET to run this application.

  App: D:\runtime\artifacts\tests\coreclr\windows.x86.Checked\Tests\Core_Root\xunit\xunit.console.dll
  Architecture: x64
  Framework: 'Microsoft.NETCore.App', version '10.0.0-preview.4.25217.6' (x64)
  .NET location: D:\runtime\.dotnet\

  The following frameworks were found:
    10.0.0-preview.3.25171.5 at [D:\runtime\.dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]

  The following frameworks for other architectures were found:
    x86
      6.0.36 at [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
      8.0.15 at [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
      9.0.4 at [C:\Program Files (x86)\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]