GitHub Actions · Ubuntu 26.04 · Checked November 4, 2026

"conda: command not found" on ubuntu-latest (Ubuntu 26.04): the image has no Miniconda, and $CONDA is empty

GitHub's Ubuntu 26.04 runner image does not include Miniconda. The announcement of the image lists it as "removed from the Ubuntu 26.04 image due to maintenance reasons" (runner-images #14226), and the image's documentation still lists the CONDA environment variable, with no value (Ubuntu2604-Readme.md, image 20261026.180.1). On ubuntu-24.04, Miniconda 26.9.4 is in /usr/share/miniconda and CONDA points there. So a job that ubuntu-latest moves from 24.04 to 26.04 finds no conda where $CONDA used to lead.

What it looks like

In GitHub Actions, the step after the one that put $CONDA/bin on the PATH:

Run conda env update --file environment.yml --name base
/home/runner/work/_temp/....sh: line 1: conda: command not found
Error: Process completed with exit code 127.

In Azure Pipelines (truera/trulens #2979):

line 1: conda: command not found
##[error]Bash exited with code '127'.

A step that calls $CONDA/bin/conda directly, or sources $CONDA/etc/profile.d/conda.sh, fails with line 1: /bin/conda: No such file or directory or line 1: /etc/profile.d/conda.sh: No such file or directory: with CONDA empty, the path starts at /.

Who it hits

GitHub's starter workflow "Python Package using Anaconda" (ci/python-package-conda.yml in actions/starter-workflows). It runs on ubuntu-latest and adds conda to the PATH with echo $CONDA/bin >> $GITHUB_PATH. With CONDA empty that adds /bin, which is on the PATH already, and the next step finds no conda.
Microsoft's "Run pipelines with Anaconda environments" for Azure Pipelines. Its Ubuntu tab adds conda with echo "##vso[task.prependpath]$CONDA/bin". The announcement lists Azure DevOps as affected too: in trulens #2979, a conda job with vmImage: ubuntu-latest passed on ubuntu-24.04 20261012.334.1 on October 20 and failed on ubuntu-26.04 20261018.168.1 the next day, while the pipeline's other jobs passed.
Any step that uses $CONDA/bin/conda, $CONDA/bin/python or $CONDA/etc/profile.d/conda.sh.
Not conda-incubator/setup-miniconda: with no installer input it uses the image's Miniconda through CONDA, and when CONDA is empty it downloads the latest Miniconda installer instead (its code, v4.1.0). The setup takes longer, but it does not depend on the image's copy.

Fix in GitHub Actions: let setup-miniconda install it

setup-miniconda sets CONDA and adds conda to the PATH for the steps after it (its code, v4.1.0), so the rest of the starter workflow can stay as it is:

    - uses: conda-incubator/setup-miniconda@v4
      with:
        miniforge-version: latest
        activate-environment: ""
    - name: Add conda to system path
      run: |
        echo $CONDA/bin >> $GITHUB_PATH

miniforge-version: latest installs Miniforge, whose default channel is conda-forge. Leave it out to get the latest Miniconda, with Anaconda's defaults channel; an organization that Anaconda contacted about the licensing of Miniconda on its build agents asked the image maintainers to switch to Miniforge (runner-images #13433). activate-environment: "" skips the test environment that the action otherwise creates.

Fix in Azure Pipelines: install Miniforge in a step

- bash: |
    curl -fsSLo "$(Agent.TempDirectory)/miniforge.sh" https://github.com/conda-forge/miniforge/releases/latest/download/Miniforge3-Linux-x86_64.sh
    bash "$(Agent.TempDirectory)/miniforge.sh" -b -p "$(Agent.TempDirectory)/miniforge3"
    echo "##vso[task.prependpath]$(Agent.TempDirectory)/miniforge3/bin"
  displayName: Install Miniforge

-b runs the installer without questions, and -p sets where it goes. Later steps that name $CONDA need this path instead. The same steps work in GitHub Actions with $RUNNER_TEMP and $GITHUB_PATH; there, echo "CONDA=$RUNNER_TEMP/miniforge3" >> "$GITHUB_ENV" also lets the steps that use $CONDA run unchanged.

Or stay on 24.04 for now

runs-on: ubuntu-24.04, or vmImage: ubuntu-24.04 in Azure Pipelines, keeps Miniconda 26.9.4 and CONDA=/usr/share/miniconda. It puts the change off until you move the job to 26.04.

Other tools the 26.04 image no longer has

The same table in the announcement removes more tools that 24.04 has:

Julia (1.13.2 on 24.04): set it up with julia-actions/setup-julia@v2.
fastlane (2.241.1 on 24.04): install it with Bundler from your Gemfile, or with gem install fastlane.
The globally installed npm modules grunt, gulp, parcel, typescript, newman, webpack, webpack-cli and lerna: add them to devDependencies and run them with npx, or npm install -g them in the job.

Telling it apart

echo "CONDA=[$CONDA]" prints CONDA=[].
The Set up job step (Initialize job in Azure Pipelines) shows the image ubuntu-26.04.
ls /usr/share/miniconda fails, where on ubuntu-24.04 it lists the install.
The same workflow passes with runs-on: ubuntu-24.04.

Other 26.04 failures

setup-python's "The version ... with architecture 'x64' was not found": setup-python has no builds of Python 3.8 or 3.9 for 26.04, and only the newest patch releases of the others; ask for the minor version, or keep the old versions on ubuntu-24.04.
"cannot enable executable stack" on Ubuntu 26.04: glibc 2.43 refuses to dlopen a library that asks for an executable stack, so Julia 1.10.0 to 1.10.8, conda-forge TensorFlow 2.19 and some MEX files fail with "Invalid argument"; clear the flag with patchelf --clear-execstack.
PyCQA/bandit-action on Ubuntu 26.04: the action sets up Python 3.8 (3.9 on v1.0.1) with no input to change it, and setup-python has builds for 26.04 only from 3.10; run Bandit in your own steps.
"Access to the path '/home/vsts' is denied" in Azure Pipelines: on 26.04 the agent's user is runner, so paths written as /home/vsts fail; build them from $(Pipeline.Workspace) or $HOME.
apt on Ubuntu 26.04: renamed and removed packages.

See failed jobs from IntelliJ IDEA

Pipeline Inbox for GitHub Actions Workflows, a plugin by Lesstep for JetBrains IDEs 2024.1 or later, lists the runs of all your repositories in an IDE tool window, with their jobs and steps, so the workflows that went red when ubuntu-latest moved stand out, and your current branch's runs are in the status bar. Reading is free; re-running failed jobs, cancelling, running workflows and reviewing deployments are Pro (US$1.50 a month, with a 30-day trial).

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