Installing Tailscale via Static Binary

toby2106 · September 25, 2024 at 8:50 AM

Read online that it was possible to install Tailscale via static binary on LibreELEC; however, the tutorial assumed alot of general knowledge about the LibreELEC command system. I for one have zero experience outside the basics of the Raspi 5 OS hence why im here.

Ive followed the tutorial set by Tailscale, yet I'm still facing errors.

Tailscale Guide:

Setting up Tailscale with static binaries (unsupported) · Tailscale Docs

Learn how to use static binaries to install Tailscale on unsupported Linux distributions.

tailscale.com

###########################################
Setting up Tailscale with static binaries (unsupported)

If you would like to try Tailscale on a Linux distribution we don't yet support, we offer statically-compiled binaries on a best-effort basis.

If you use these binaries, contact us so that we can consider adding official support for your distribution.

We offer static binaries for x86 and ARM CPUs, in both 32-bit and 64-bit variants.

Download the static binaries for your CPU architecture:
- Stable release track
- Unstable development track
Unpack the archive:
Code
```
tar xvf tailscale_VERSION_ARCH.tgz
```
Start tailscaled:
Code
```
sudo tailscaled --state=tailscaled.state
```
If you want to configure systemd to run tailscaled automatically, a service configuration is available in the systemd/ subdirectory of the unpacked archive.
Connect your machine to your Tailscale network and authenticate in your browser:
Code
```
sudo tailscale up
```
You're connected! You can find your Tailscale IPv4 address by running:
Code
```
tailscale ip -4
```

If the device you added is a server or remotely-accessed device, you may want to consider disabling key expiry to prevent the need to periodically re-authenticate.

###########################################
What I've done so far,

Enabled Raspi Tools in the LibreELEC add-ons

wget https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale_1.74.1_arm64.tgz

tar xvf tailscale_1.74.1_arm64.tgz

tailscaled --state=tailscaled.state

Error = -sh: tailscaled: not found

I tried
./tailscale_1.74.1_arm64/tailscaled

I proceed to get the error that tailscale has stoped.

What am I doing wrong/ can anyone help me get to my goal.
Have in mind that I am somewhat new to this system and the raspi 5 as a whole

Peterc · September 27, 2024 at 9:13 AM

Hello toby2106

Bellow is a copy and paste of my tailscale config file from: /storage/.config/system.d The top half of the tailscaled.service file is the system.d config for tailscale and the bottom half are notes to help remind me of how to setup tailscale.

Hope the file help you to set up and runing tailscale !

Reminder: use the command: ./tailscale set --exit-node-allow-lan-access=true

Before you set the exit node so you do not get lock out from ssh to your raspi.

Do a LibreELEC backup to be safe !!

Regards: peter

File name: tailscaled.service

Code

[Unit]
Description=Tailscale LibreELEC agent
Documentation=https://tailscale.com/kb/
Wants=network-pre.target
After=network-pre.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
StartLimitBurst=0

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=/storage/.config/tailscale.d/systemd/tailscaled.defaults
ExecStartPre=/storage/.config/tailscale.d/tailscaled --cleanup
ExecStart=/storage/.config/tailscale.d/tailscaled --state=/storage/.config/tailscale.d/tailscaled.state --socket=/run/tailscale/tailscaled.sock --port $PORT $FLAGS
ExecStopPost=/storage/.config/tailscale.d/tailscaled --cleanup

Restart=on-failure

RuntimeDirectory=tailscale
RuntimeDirectoryMode=0755
StateDirectory=tailscale
StateDirectoryMode=0750

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

##////////////////////////////////////////////////##
#  ssh into LibreELEC and wget the tailscale package.
#  Download from: 
#  https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/#static
#  Downlown to: .config
#  #  wget https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/#static
#  tar xvf tailscale-package
#  mv tailscale-package tailscale.d
#  
#  Desktop machine scp the systemd file: tailscaled.service to LibreELEC.
#  cd /home/sysadmin/Documents/Kodi
#  scp tailscaled.service root@LibreELEC.local:
#
#  Login: ssh root@LibreELEC.local
#  cp tailscaled.service /storage/.config/system.d
#  cd /storage/.config/system.d
#
#  Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units
#  systemctl enable tailscaled.service
#  systemctl start tailscaled.service
#  
#  cd /storage/.config/tailscale.d
#  ./tailscale up
#
#  ./tailscale exit-node list
#  exit node, use `tailscale set --exit-node=` followed by the hostname or IP
#  only for LibreELEC:  --accept-dns=false
#  ./tailscale set --accept-dns=false
#  ./tailscale set --exit-node-allow-lan-access=true
#  ./tailscale exit-node suggest
#  ./tailscale set --exit-node=hostname
#  ./tailscale exit-node list --filter=UK
#
#  Show machines on your tailnet configured as exit nodes
#  ./tailscale status | grep mull
#  ./tailscale bugreport
#  systemctl status tailscaled.service > bugs.txt

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**chewitt** · September 27, 2024 at 4:17 PM

Interesting. I started work on a tailscale add-on about 18-months ago, but didn't get that far down the path of a working install to really make anything work. I might have to redo things as I use Tailscale more than plain WireGuard these days. Although, I'm so time-poor at the moment that I wouldn't hold breath on anything progressing

rundervinkje · December 20, 2024 at 2:28 PM

Whilst looking for a way to access kodi when out of my home network, I stumbled upon this thread.

I think my solution will only work if you, like me, have a seperate Pi/server running besides the kodi server/SBC/etc.

When installing tailscale on my seperate Pi, I connect to it via Tailscale apps.
Then, using subnets https://tailscale.com/kb/1019/subnets, I'm able to access my kodi player and stream from there.

Maybe not your use case but wanted to share for any future searchers stumbling across this forum post.

rundervinkje · January 13, 2025 at 12:04 PM

Using my method above led to unusable streaming performance. I can't believe my searches never let me to the following page: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tailscale/co…eelec_for_kodi/. The page describes how to run it tailscale on libreelec. I've added the description below should something happen to the reddit post in the future. If nothing is heard back from me, this will have solved my performance issues ;).

The exact copy of the post

Commenting here because this thread is the top google result for "libreelec tailscale" and "kodi tailscale".

I was able to install tailscale on an x86-64 machine running libreelec using the provided binaries.

First I sshed into the host as root then I used wget to retrieve the amd64 binary from https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/#static

and saved it into /storage and extracted it using tar xvf tailscale_VERSION_ARCH.tgz

it will include .\tailscaled the daemon, and .\tailscale the CLI.

The command to start the daemon is

Code

tailscaled --state=tailscaled.state

This will output the log through stdout and is blocking.

The easiest way to run this command on startup is to use autostart.sh which is documented here. https://wiki.libreelec.tv/configuration/startup-shutdown

so mine looks like this

Code

(
cd /storage/tailscale_1.26.1_amd64 &&
tailscaled --state=tailscaled.state
) &

Note: to kill the tailscale daemon, you can find its pid using ps aux | grep tailscaled and then executing kill pid

You can verify if the daemon is running by using

Code

./tailscale status

To login, just use

Code

./tailscale up

it will produce a link that you can copy paste from your ssh terminal into the browser to login. After logging in, it will save your config and automatically join your tailnet every time the daemon starts up.

This should be enough info to get started. Hope this helps anyone coming from google.

Perhaps in the future, someone could make a kodi addon that can wrap this.

my abbreviated how to (via SSH)

find the right binary on: https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/#static , right click -> copy link
in your terminal type: wget [your link]
find the download location and zipped file using 'cd' and 'ls' commands. Once found, unzip the file using: tar xvf [yourfile].tgz
run nano /storage/.config/autostart.sh

if there is already a line, place the following text right below it:

Code

(
cd /storage/[YOURFOLDER]&&
./tailscaled --state=tailscaled.state
) &

exit, save, reboot machine
log back in to your machine and navigate to the unzipped folder. Inside the folder use: ./tailscale up
You will get a link, open it inside your browser and accept the machine into your tailscale network.
You can check up on the service using ./tailscale status

**Da Flex** · January 13, 2025 at 4:47 PM

I put this thread into Showcase section, so both Tailscale installation methods are united.

rundervinkje · January 23, 2025 at 7:56 PM

Sadly, installing Tailscale hasn't upped my streamspeeds from a remote location. BUT! I'd like to tell you it still might work for you because

...of my weird set up...

So I have a pi 4 and a pi 5. My pi 4 has libreelec on it and my pi 5 is multi use server and has all my media hard drives connected to it (this is because stuff like Immich is on the pi 5 and I figured that would perform best if the drive is connected to the pi 5 itself). My libreelec/pi4 grabs the material via Samba from the pi5 mnt folder.

So now I decided to install jellyfin on my pi5, turn it on/off depending on my location and will try to stream from the pi5 directly. If that doesn't work... I'll try a VPN to my home network without tailscale... and if that doesn't work... WELL ... then I surrender. I will also try connecting a different drive directly to the pi 4 and see if that helps - but this is purely for academic reasons, not a long term solution. This is rundy officially closing my participation on this thread because I am tired *mic drop*! On to retrogaming issues now ...

Edit, 27-1-2025: tailscale+jellyfin streaming didn't work either. Appears I am not the only one with this problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/Tailscale/co…over_tailscale/.

rundervinkje · January 23, 2025 at 7:58 PM

Oh, addition: if there is a 'dedicated remote streaming application in a docker container' I could use instead of jellyfin, I'd like to hear that.

also... why is the word: s c i e n t i f i c not allowed in a post XD?

**Da Flex** · January 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM

Quote from rundervinkje

why is the word: s c i e n t i f i c not allowed in a post XD?

We have a blacklist of buzzwords to block spam posts. We need that protection, and we don't do real science here.