SDL2 can't be built on Windows at the moment

[kapkekes]

Problem

Can't build SDL2.

Description

I tried to build this library using Haskell Stack on Windows 11, but encountered a problem:

sdl2> C://Users//vashu//AppData//Local//Programs//stack//x86_64-windows//ghc-9.2.5//mingw//bin/ld.exe: C:\Users\vashu\AppData\Local\Programs\stack\x86_64-windows\msys2-20220904\mingw64\lib/libSDL2main.a(SDL_windows_main.c.obj):(.rdata$.refptr.__stack_chk_guard[.refptr.__stack_chk_guard]+0x0): undefined reference to `__stack_chk_guard'
sdl2> collect2.exe: error: ld returned 1 exit status

(full logs are here: log.txt)

As far as I can tell, this should be a problem with the SDL2 from MinGW64 repository. Sadly, I don't know how to contact its maintainers.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install Stack: https://docs.haskellstack.org/en/stable/#how-to-install-stack
2. Execute:

stack exec -- pacman -Syu
stack exec -- pacman -S msys2-keyring
stack exec -- pacman -S mingw64-w64-x86_64-pkg-config mingw64-w64-x86_64-SDL2

3. Try to install SDL2:

stack install sdl2

Workaround solution

idea by @toolcreator: #277 (comment)

the newest working version found by @jship: #277 (comment)

[kapkekes]

Moreover, I forked this repository and ran the build workflow: it crashed on Windows.

https://github.com/kapkekes/sdl2/actions/runs/3497213769

UPD: logs of workflow expire fast, so you can just check the last run from here: https://github.com/haskell-game/sdl2/actions

[toolcreator]

I have the same issue and found a workaround.
Instead of installing the most recent version of SDL2 from MSYS, use an older one:

$ stack exec -- curl -O https://repo.msys2.org/mingw/x86_64/mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
$ stack exec -- pacman -U mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

This is just the oldest version that's still available on repo.msys2.org, I didn't test any other.

[Mikolaj]

I have probably the same problem without stack, just with (an old) cabal: https://ci.appveyor.com/project/Mikolaj/lambdahack/build/job/5sab5gwkru56fpip

It says

* Missing (or bad) C libraries: SDL2, mingw32, SDL2main, SDL2

[Mikolaj]

And the workaround did not succeed for me, because my problem (the "Missing" line above) is the same as of #277 (comment) and is different than the one from the description of the ticket.

[Mikolaj]

And the same problem (mine) shows up in the official CI of this repo as well: https://github.com/haskell-game/sdl2/actions/runs/3732668333/jobs/6332423036#step:9:21

• Missing (or bad) C libraries: SDL2, SDL2main, SDL2

[Mikolaj]

I've opened a new ticket for that separate issue: #280

[SturdyPose]

I've tried building with cabal and I've had success.
So my workaround what @Mikolaj mentioned and using the latest SDL2 with libs on Windows machine (win11):
Go to SDL2 releases github page and download latest SDL2 mingw file.

Unpack it and drop files to your msys mingw64 installation folder (example: C:\msys64\mingw64).
Open msys and pacman -Syu and pacman -S pkgconf
Append this to your .bashrc -> export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/mingw64/lib/pkgconfig

So there's this bug in cabal which can't see if pkg-config path is relative or absolute and some other issues with including files and lib folders (I'm not sure if stack has this same issue) but to workaround it, I had to go C:\<pathToMsys>\mingw64\lib\pkgconfig\sdl2.pc and edit prefix to: prefix=C:\\<pathToMsys>\\mingw64.
Go to your global cabal config (/cabal/config) and add extra include dirs should look something like this:

extra-include-dirs: 
  C:\<pathToMsys>\mingw64\include,
  C:\<pathToMsys>\mingw64\include\SDL2

If you want SDL_image library, then you need to also copy mingw package to msys/mingw64 and edit sdl2_image.pc file with prefix.

I've spent whole week figuring this out. Hope this helps someone.

[madjestic]

I would like to expand a bit on @Poselsky answer:

Unpack it and drop files to your msys mingw64 installation folder (example: C:\msys64\mingw64).

after extracting the SDL2 archive, the files in questions, depending on your setup, may be here:
C:\Users\username\Downloads\SDL2-devel-2.26.4-mingw\SDL2-2.26.4\x86_64-w64-mingw32

\bin
\include
\lib
\share

You need to copy the dirs over to mingw64 matching dirs, e.g. C:\ghcup\msys64\mingw64:

C:\ghcup\msys64\mingw64\bin
C:\ghcup\msys64\mingw64\incude
...

Respectively, edit the cabal/config file

...
-- flags:
extra-include-dirs: C:\ghcup\msys64\mingw64\include,
                    C:\ghcup\msys64\mingw64\include\SDL2
-- deterministic:
...

I did not have to add the path to the .bashrc

Otherwise it works, thanks!

[Lev135]

I have the same issue and found a workaround. Instead of installing the most recent version of SDL2 from MSYS, use an older one:

$ stack exec -- curl -O https://repo.msys2.org/mingw/x86_64/mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
$ stack exec -- pacman -U mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

This is just the oldest version that's still available on repo.msys2.org, I didn't test any other.

This failed for sdl2-2.5.5.0 with the following errors:

error: In file included from dist\build\SDL\Raw\Types_hsc_make.c:1:
Types.hsc: In function 'SDL_main':
Types.hsc:1411:15: error: 'SDL_Vertex' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'SDL_mutex'?
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:96:39: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_size'
   96 |     hsc_printf("(%ld)", (long) sizeof(t));
      |                                       ^
Types.hsc:1411:15: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:96:39: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_size'
   96 |     hsc_printf("(%ld)", (long) sizeof(t));
      |                                       ^
Types.hsc:1412:20: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'SDL_Vertex'
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:102:7: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_alignment'
  102 |       x b;                                                            \
      |       ^
In file included from C:/ghcup/ghc/8.10.7/mingw/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/9.2.0/include/stddef.h:1,
                 from C:/ghcup/ghc/8.10.7/mingw/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/inttypes.h:14,
                 from C:/Users/lev_1/AppData/Local/Programs/stack/x86_64-windows/msys2-20210604/mingw64/include/SDL2/SDL_stdinc.h:75,
                 from C:/Users/lev_1/AppData/Local/Programs/stack/x86_64-windows/msys2-20210604/mingw64/include/SDL2/SDL.h:33,
                 from Types.hsc:83:
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:104:38: error: 'struct __anon_x__' has no member named 'b'
  104 |     hsc_printf("%lu", (unsigned long)offsetof(struct __anon_x__, b)); \
      |                                      ^~~~~~~~

It seems that something has been changed through this versions. But everything is Ok with 2.0.22, i. e.

stack exec -- curl -O https://repo.msys2.org/mingw/x86_64/mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.22-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
stack exec -- pacman -U mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.22-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

Hope this will be useful as an temporary workaround.

[madjestic]

I have the same issue and found a workaround. Instead of installing the most recent version of SDL2 from MSYS, use an older one:

$ stack exec -- curl -O https://repo.msys2.org/mingw/x86_64/mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
$ stack exec -- pacman -U mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.14-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

This is just the oldest version that's still available on repo.msys2.org, I didn't test any other.

This failed for sdl2-2.5.5.0 with the following errors:

error: In file included from dist\build\SDL\Raw\Types_hsc_make.c:1:
Types.hsc: In function 'SDL_main':
Types.hsc:1411:15: error: 'SDL_Vertex' undeclared (first use in this function); did you mean 'SDL_mutex'?
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:96:39: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_size'
   96 |     hsc_printf("(%ld)", (long) sizeof(t));
      |                                       ^
Types.hsc:1411:15: note: each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:96:39: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_size'
   96 |     hsc_printf("(%ld)", (long) sizeof(t));
      |                                       ^
Types.hsc:1412:20: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before 'SDL_Vertex'
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:102:7: note: in definition of macro 'hsc_alignment'
  102 |       x b;                                                            \
      |       ^
In file included from C:/ghcup/ghc/8.10.7/mingw/lib/gcc/x86_64-w64-mingw32/9.2.0/include/stddef.h:1,
                 from C:/ghcup/ghc/8.10.7/mingw/x86_64-w64-mingw32/include/inttypes.h:14,
                 from C:/Users/lev_1/AppData/Local/Programs/stack/x86_64-windows/msys2-20210604/mingw64/include/SDL2/SDL_stdinc.h:75,
                 from C:/Users/lev_1/AppData/Local/Programs/stack/x86_64-windows/msys2-20210604/mingw64/include/SDL2/SDL.h:33,
                 from Types.hsc:83:
C:\ghcup\ghc\8.10.7/lib/template-hsc.h:104:38: error: 'struct __anon_x__' has no member named 'b'
  104 |     hsc_printf("%lu", (unsigned long)offsetof(struct __anon_x__, b)); \
      |                                      ^~~~~~~~

It seems that something has been changed through this versions. But everything is Ok with 2.0.22, i. e.

stack exec -- curl -O https://repo.msys2.org/mingw/x86_64/mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.22-2-any.pkg.tar.zst
stack exec -- pacman -U mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2-2.0.22-2-any.pkg.tar.zst

Hope this will be useful as an temporary workaround.

It looks like you are using an older GHC version. If that's unintentional, try a more recent GHC version as well as a newer sdl2.