WSL Error Fix - Updated Solution

🔴 New Issue Encountered

When trying to use actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3 on a self-hosted Windows runner, we encountered:

Error: Windows Subsystem for Linux has no installed distributions.
Error code: Bash/Service/CreateInstance/GetDefaultDistro/WSL_E_DEFAULT_DISTRO_NOT_FOUND
Process completed with exit code 1.

🔍 Why This Happened

The actions/upload-pages-artifact@v3 action uses tar to create archives, which requires either:

• A Linux environment (bash, tar utilities)
• Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Your self-hosted Windows runner doesn’t have WSL installed, so the action fails.

✅ Solution: Hybrid Runner Approach

Instead of trying to run everything on Windows, we split the workflow to use the best runner for each job:

Job 1: Build (Windows Self-Hosted)

• ✅ Uses your Windows runner where Quarto is installed
• ✅ Renders the Quarto site efficiently
• ✅ Uploads build output as a short-lived artifact (1 day)

Job 2: Deploy (Ubuntu Latest - GitHub Hosted)

• ✅ Uses GitHub’s free Ubuntu runner
• ✅ Downloads the build artifact
• ✅ Uses upload-pages-artifact@v3 (works perfectly on Linux)
• ✅ Deploys to GitHub Pages

📊 Workflow Structure

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: self-hosted  # Your Windows runner
    steps:
      - Checkout
      - Setup Quarto (Windows)
      - Render Quarto site
      - Upload artifact (retention: 1 day)
      
  deploy:
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest  # GitHub's Linux runner
    steps:
      - Download artifact
      - Upload to Pages (requires Linux)
      - Deploy to Pages

🎯 Benefits of This Approach

1. ✅ No WSL Required
   • Build happens on native Windows
   • Deploy happens on Linux (where the action works)
2. ✅ Minimal Storage Impact
   • Artifacts only kept for 1 day
   • Automatic cleanup after 24 hours
   • No accumulation over time
3. ✅ Uses Free Resources Efficiently
   • Self-hosted runner for compute-heavy build
   • GitHub’s free runner for quick deployment step
4. ✅ Best of Both Worlds
   • Windows for Quarto (your tooling)
   • Linux for Pages deployment (GitHub’s tooling)

🔄 What Changed from Previous Solution

Previous Attempt (Failed):

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: self-hosted  # Windows only
    steps:
      - Render on Windows
      - upload-pages-artifact@v3  # ❌ Fails - needs Linux!

Current Solution (Works):

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: self-hosted  # Windows
    steps:
      - Render on Windows
      - upload-artifact@v4 with retention-days: 1
      
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest  # Linux
    steps:
      - download-artifact@v4
      - upload-pages-artifact@v3  # ✅ Works on Linux!
      - deploy-pages@v4

📋 Alternative Solutions (Not Recommended)

If you really wanted to use only your Windows runner, you could:

Option 1: Install WSL

• Install WSL on your Windows runner
• But this adds complexity and maintenance

Option 2: Use PowerShell-based artifact creation

• Write custom PowerShell to create tar archives
• But this is reinventing the wheel

Option 3: Deploy directly without Pages actions

• Push to gh-pages branch manually
• But you lose GitHub Pages integration benefits

Verdict: The hybrid runner approach is simpler and more maintainable.

✅ Current Status

• ✅ Workflow updated to use hybrid approach
• ✅ Build on Windows self-hosted runner
• ✅ Deploy on GitHub’s Ubuntu runner
• ✅ Short-lived artifacts (1 day retention)
• ✅ Should work immediately on next run!

🚀 Next Steps

1. Test the updated workflow
   • Commit and push the changes
   • Workflow will run automatically (push trigger is enabled)
2. Verify successful deployment
   • Check Actions tab for green checkmarks
   • Confirm site is published to GitHub Pages
3. Monitor storage usage
   • Artifacts should auto-delete after 24 hours
   • No quota buildup over time

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The workflow file has been updated and is ready to use! 🎉