cannot install mips-unknown-linux-musl, and 'rustup target --list | grep mips' is empty

[ramabu]

Checklist

• [X] I've looked through the issues and pull requests for similar reports

Describe your issue

I installed rust on a new machine, and cannot compile code for mips-unknown-linux-musl target. same code compiles OK on another machine.

1. Trying to add the missing target fails as below.

rustup target add mips-unknown-linux-musl
error: component 'rust-std' for target 'mips-unknown-linux-musl' is unavailable for download for channel 'stable'
If you don't need the component, you can remove it with:

    rustup target remove --toolchain stable mips-unknown-linux-musl

2. Versions in the broken machine

me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ for A in rustup cargo rustc cross; do echo $($A --version); done
info: This is the version for the rustup toolchain manager, not the rustc compiler.
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `rustc 1.75.0 (82e1608df 2023-12-21)`
rustup 1.26.0 (5af9b9484 2023-04-05)
cargo 1.75.0 (1d8b05cdd 2023-11-20)
rustc 1.75.0 (82e1608df 2023-12-21)
[cross] note: Falling back to `cargo` on the host.
cross 0.2.5 cargo 1.75.0 (1d8b05cdd 2023-11-20)

3. Versions in the compile-OK one:

me@my-ubuntu $ for A in rustup cargo rustc cross; do echo $($A --version); done
info: This is the version for the rustup toolchain manager, not the rustc compiler.
info: The currently active `rustc` version is `rustc 1.74.1 (a28077b28 2023-12-04)`
rustup 1.26.0 (5af9b9484 2023-04-05)
cargo 1.74.1 (ecb9851af 2023-10-18)
rustc 1.74.1 (a28077b28 2023-12-04)
[cross] warning: unable to get metadata for package
[cross] note: Falling back to `cargo` on the host.
cross 0.2.5 (7fb1a37 2023-12-25) cargo 1.74.1 (ecb9851af 2023-10-18)

What target(s) are you cross-compiling for?

No response

Which operating system is the host (e.g computer cross is on) running?

• [ ] macOS
• [ ] Windows
• [X] Linux / BSD
• [ ] other OS (specify in description)

What architecture is the host?

• [X] x86_64 / AMD64
• [ ] arm32
• [ ] arm64 (including Mac M1)

What container engine is cross using?

• [X] docker
• [ ] podman
• [ ] other container engine (specify in description)

cross version

cross 0.2.5 cargo 1.75.0 (1d8b05cdd 2023-11-20)

Example

me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ uname -a
Linux accessible-chinook 5.15.0-91-generic #101-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 14 13:30:08 UTC 2023 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
...
me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ rustup update
...
me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ cargo install cross
...
me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ rustup target add mips-unknown-linux-musl
error: component 'rust-std' for target 'mips-unknown-linux-musl' is unavailable for download for channel 'stable'
If you don't need the component, you can remove it with:

    rustup target remove --toolchain stable mips-unknown-linux-musl
me@broken-vm-ubuntu $ rustup target list | grep -c mips
0

Additional information / notes

No response

[ramabu]

duplicate of https://github.com/cross-rs/cross/issues/1336