Frequently Asked Questions

New here? See the Introduction for project overview and prerequisites.

Installation

"failed log upload" error during installation?

This is expected and can be safely ignored. It's a non-critical log upload attempt that doesn't affect functionality.

How do I update Tailscale?

# APK (OpenWrt 25.12+)
apk update && apk upgrade tailscale

# OPKG (OpenWrt 24.10-)
opkg update && opkg upgrade tailscale

Usage

Tailscale keeps restarting?

This might be due to OOM (out of memory). See Memory Optimization for solutions.

Can I use this with LuCI?

Yes! Install luci-app-tailscale-community for a graphical management interface. See LuCI Web UI for details.

Do updates/reinstalls affect packages like luci-app-tailscale-community?

No. Dependencies are by package name (tailscale) and this repository keeps the name; persistent updates/reinstalls force-reinstall while keeping the package record, /etc/config/tailscale is never overwritten, and during mode switches LuCI can still call the CLI through /usr/sbin/tailscale.

Uninstall says "tailscale is still registered"?

It means another package depends on tailscale (e.g. luci-app-tailscale-community) and the package manager refused the removal. To avoid breaking dependent packages the script aborts the uninstall and restores the service; remove the dependent package first and retry:

# OpenWrt 25.12+
apk del luci-app-tailscale-community
# OpenWrt 24.10-
opkg remove luci-app-tailscale-community

Build

Can I build packages myself?

Yes! See the Build Guide for Docker-based build instructions.

How to embed the latest Tailscale into a self-built firmware?

If you compile your own OpenWrt firmware and the official packages feed only ships an old tailscale, there are two options:

1. Install the prebuilt ipk directly (no compilation): download the ipk for your architecture and opkg install it
2. One-click script build_feed.sh: replaces the Go toolchain, registers the feed, removes the stale official package, and builds

See Self-Build Firmware for details.

Does UPX affect performance?

UPX decompresses the binary at startup. The decompression is very fast (milliseconds) and the binary runs at native speed afterward. The memory overhead of decompression is negligible.

Still have questions?

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