This package is a user interface for tailscale on Victron Energy GX devices.
tailscale provides is a VPN-like connection for virtually any device.
Victron VRM provides access to the GX device's GUI, but not a command line interface to the GX devie. TailscaleGX provides an ssh connection and also http access to all the GUIs available on the GX device Any web browser or ssh tool (ssh, scp, rsync, etc.) can be used to communicate with the GX device. However a tailscale account is required and the tailscale app must be installed on the computer, tablet or smart phone connecting to the GX device.
The GX device must also be logged in to the SAME tailscale account.
tailscale clients are available for Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Linux and Android.
TailscaleGX is on GitHub at https://github.com/kwindrem/TailscaleGX
And more information is available at:
TailscaleReadMe.md file is also included in this package.
tailscale is being added to Venus OS. When a stock tailscale is detected, TailscaleGX will not run to avoid conflics The firmware version that will include tailscale has not been determined so the normal obsolete version mechamism is not used at the moment but will be added when the version is known.
Support for firmware prior to v3.10 has been dropped starting with TailScaleGX v1.6
If you are running older versions, change the branch/tag to preV3.10support for any packages you wish to run on that firmware
ssh access must be enabled in Settings / General, and a root password set or any ssh tool will not be able to access the GX device. To do this refer to:
https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ccgx:root_access
After installing TailscaleGX, navigate to Settings / General / Remote access via tailscale
and turn on Allow remote connections
After tailscale starts up you will be presented a message reading:
connect this GX devices to your account at:
On a computer, tablet or smart phone with the tailscale app installed, enter the URL exactly as it is shown on the screen.
You will be asked login to your tailscale account.
Press the Connect button.
On the GX devive, the message should change to:
accepting remote connections at:
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
xxxx:xxxx:xxxx::xxxx:xxxx
(IPv4 and IPv6 addresses)
You can then connect to the GX device from any computer, etc logged in to your tailscale account.
Any tool for ssh, scp, etc or any web browser should work, however you must have the tailscale app enabled and logged in to your account.
You can disable tailscale by turning Allow remote connections off. Turning it on again you will reconnect to tailscale without logging in again. The same IP addresses will be used until you logout the GX device.
If you wish to disconnect the GX device from the existing tailscale account, press the Logout button. You can then log into a different account.
You may optionally share the tailnet connection with other devices on your local network.
To do so, turn on IP forwarding in the Tailscale GX setup menu.
Note that IP forwarding will impact CPU performance so use with caution.
TailscaleGX can be installed from Package manager.
In Inactive packages
If TailscaleGX is already in the list, select it and tap Proceed
If not in the list, select new and fill in the details:
Packagename: TailscaleGX
GitHub user: kwindrem
GitHub branch or tag: latest
then tap Proceed
Only a computer, tablet or smart phone running the tailscale app AND logged into the same account used when connecting the GX device to tailscale can access the GX device.
There is information on the tailscale web site that discusses the security issues.
The GX device will not allow tailscale connections when Allow remote connections is turned off.
The tailscale included in TailscaleGX is an "extra-small" build of v1.70. This build is about 25 MB compared to about 50 MB for the pre-built binairies.
tailscale runs as a daemon (tailscaled).
In Venus OS, tailscaled is run as a daemontools service: TailscaleGX-backend
In addition a command-line application (tailscale) controls tailscaled.
The daemon only runs when Allow remote connections is turned on.
A second service TailscaleGX-control:
- starts and stops TailscaleGX-backend
- manages bringing up the GX to tailscale server link
- collects login and connection status from tailscale
- provides this status to the GUI
- prompts the user for necessary steps to establish a connection