Tailscale on special hardware

Out of the box hardware

Gl-Inet

• Gl-Inet router support table
  • Currently, only one cellular router supports Tailscale, the expensive GL-X3000 (Spitz AX)
  • There are no GL-Inet routers including a DSL modem

OpenWrt

• Openwrt wiki: Tailscale user guide
• Tailscale and dependend packages are huge (ca. 8 MB) and flash size >16 MB is needed ! See section below

With DSL modem

• Devices with DSL Modem and at least 16MB Flash & 64MB RAM, and >2 Ethernet ports
  • Fritzbox models:
• FRITZ!Box WLAN 3370
  • 3390
  • 3490
  • 7490
  • 7520 / 7530
    • 4 cores, 256 MB RAM, 128 NAND Flash

With LTE modem

• Devices with LTE Modem and at least 16MB Flash & 64MB RAM, and >2 Ethernet ports
  • Watch out for the wiki page existence and the Inst.Method !

Options:

• D-Link DWR-960 rev. A1
  • Beware: Only the rev. A* is supported
  • GUI install possible
  • Default credentials:
    • Username: admin
    • Password: ``
  • Stock Firmware: 01.01.EU
• ASUS 4G-AX56
  • Only snapshot supported (since of 2025-07)
  • Used ~100€, new ~140€
  • 2 cores, 512 MB RAM, 128 NAND Flash
  • 5 Ethernet ports

No options:

• Arcadyan/Astoria AW1000: Not available
• Arcadyan/Astoria Easybox 904 LTE (distributed by Vodafone)
  • No installation instructions
  • From the forum thread: "If you want OpenWrt and painless operations, this device (neither xDSL nor LTE) isn't for you - there are better and much easier options these days."
• Cell C RTL30VW: Not available
• D-Link DWR-961 rev. A1
  • Not device entry in wiki
  • Not available
• GL.iNet GL-X3000 (Spitz AX): Too expensive
• GL.iNet :GL-XE3000 (Puli AX) Too expensive
• TP-Link - Archer MR600
  • Serial install
• Wallys DR344-NAS27: Serial install
• Wallys DR40X9:
  • Install: see git-commit
  • Not available
• ZTE MF287
  • Complicated intall using exploit
  • Very litle availability
• ZyXEL LTE7490-M904: Not available

Install

• OpenWrt docs: Tailscale install

opkg update
opkg install iptables-nft ip6tables-nft kmod-ipt-conntrack kmod-ipt-conntrack-extra kmod-ipt-conntrack-label kmod-nft-nat kmod-ipt-nat tailscale

• Config at /etc/config/tailscale

Setup

tailscale up --login-server https://$HEADSCALE_DOMAIN

Devices with low mem / flash size

• Openwrt wiki: Tailscale user guide / Installation on storage constrained devices

openwrt-tailscale-enabler

• GitHub
• Brings Tailscale to low powered OpenWRT devices
• Dynamically downloads Tailscale packages into RamFS to circumvent nvram size
• Auto-updates to latest Tailscale image on each reboot
• Runs on devices with 128 Mb RAM
  • "Need to have at least 11+16 = ~27 MB of free space in /tmp (which is usually in RAM) to be able to use this."
• Question about persistence
• Install

Uninstall:

/etc/init.d/tailscale stop
rm /usr/bin/tailscale /usr/bin/tailscaled /etc/init.d/tailscale /tmp/tailscale*
rm -rf /var/lib/tailscale
reboot

Issues:

• Couldn't make it work reliably. DNS resolution didn't work, SSH to tailscale nodes neither (2024-06)

ESP

• FR: ESP32 library