Set up Tailscale pkg and join tailnet 100% using cli

Today I needed to join a remote device to my Tailnet in order to access a resource. The primary WAN was down, so I was connecting via RMS proxy. The Tailscale “login auth” popup does not seem functional from inside the proxied connection.

I tried to manually install the package…

opkg update
opkg install tailscale

…but doing so did not appear to make the package functional - it did not appear in the installed packages list in the web interface, nor did it add config menu to VPN section. So I ended up installing it via RMS GUI.

Then I tried to join from CLI using auth key, something like:

tailscale login --accept-dns=false --advertise-routes 192.168.1.0/24 --auth-key tskey-auth-kqBTin6KZy11CNTRL-6Y5xYxFmB7gQm7NjQZqE7go9wZ1i7SQYG

…but this did not work either… it just timed out.

Is there any way to remotely activate a node on tailscale without directly interacting with the web interface?

RUTX11 running 7.10

Hello,

To install the Tailscale package on your device via CLI, please follow these steps:

  1. Download the zip file of the package for your device’s firmware version from here.
  2. Transfer the .ipk files from your PC to the /tmp folder on your RUTX11.
  3. Once the files are in the /tmp folder, install them using the command opkg install <file name>

After completing these steps, the Tailscale package will be installed on your device. To see how to use the Tailscale command, execute: tailscale.
This will display a list of available commands.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Thank you for trying, but these steps do not line up with reality:

  1. “Download the zip” (the files are actually .tar.gz)
  2. ok, so I download the tar.gz and “unzip” it on my computer, inside I find this:

There are 3 ipk files… do I copy and install all of them? Or am I doing this incorrectly?

Hello,

Apologies for any confusion. Yes, the package file is .tar.gz. Regarding the files, please transfer all three .ipk files from your PC to the /tmp folder on your RUTX11. Once the files are transferred, SSH into the router, navigate to the /tmp folder by executing cd /tmp, and install each of the .ipk files using the command opkg install <file name> (e.g., opkg install tailscale_1.70.0-3_arm_cortex-a7_neon-vfpv4.ipk).

Let me know if you need any further assistance.

Best regards,

Thank you. I am working through this now. I found that in order to enable the package / service after install, I need to use the local API, something like:

cd /tmp

wget https://opkg.teltonika-networks.com/{...}/wiki/tailscale.tar.gz

tar xvfz tailscale.tar.gz

opkg install vuci-app-tailscale-api*.ipk vuci-app-tailscale-ui*.ipk tailscale*.ipk

api put /tailscale/config '{ "data": [{
  "enabled": "1",
  "default_route": "0",
  "id": "general",
  "accept_routes": "0",
  "advert_routes": [ "192.168.1.0/24" ],
  "auth_type": "url",
  "exit_node": "0"
}]}'

Then we can run the command below to get the login url to register and authorize the node

tailscale status

Please let me know if everything is working and if you need any additional help.

Best regards,

Yes everything worked. I also tested and confirmed that the steps above are possible to execute successfully using RMS proxy CLI. So, if you confirm that the steps are good and correct, I consider this “solved”.

Good to hear the issue is resolved!

To enable Tailscale without using an API, you can follow these steps:

  1. Execute: uci set tailscale.settings.enabled='1'
  2. Execute: uci commit
  3. Execute: /etc/init.d/tailscale restart
  4. After applying the changes and restarting the Tailscale service, you can execute: tailscale up. The website for authentication will be provided via the CLI.

Best regards,

1 Like

Hi! Can I install Tailscale on my RUT241? Thanks

Hello,

Unfortunately, the RUT241 does not support Tailscale.

Best regards

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