Install Tailscale on Ubuntu 26.10

Ubuntu 26.10 came out recently, and I wanted Tailscale on a fresh 26.10 box. I use Tailscale for development, so I can test apps and get to the box from anywhere. On 26.10 the usual one liner doesn't work. Tailscale builds its apt repo per Ubuntu codename, and there's no stonking repo yet:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w '%{http_code}\n' https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/dists/stonking/Release

404

The same URL with resolute (26.04) returns 200. Tailscale's package page starts at 26.04, then 25.10, 25.04 and older. There's no 26.10.

The screenshots come from a final clean run on a fresh 26.10 server, as a user called example; the text blocks come from the first test box, so times and IDs differ.

So this post is the error text you'll hit, what each one means, and two fixes I tested on a fresh 26.10 server. For everything after the install (auth keys on a headless box, MagicDNS, exit nodes), my 26.04 Tailscale guide uses the same commands, so I won't repeat it here (I couldn't test joining a tailnet from the lab; see section 6).

TL;DR. Use Tailscale's 26.04 repo until a 26.10 one exists: fetch resolute.noarmor.gpg and resolute.tailscale-keyring.list instead of the stonking ones, then sudo apt-get install tailscale. It installed Tailscale 1.104.1 on 26.10 and tailscaled came up enabled and running. If you'd rather keep apt out of it, the static binaries plus the systemd unit in the tarball work too, and tailscale update keeps them current. When https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/stonking/installer-supported says OK, swap resolute for stonking in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list.

What breaks on 26.10

I tested on a fresh Ubuntu 26.10 server (kernel 7.3.0-9-generic) as a sudo user called example, on 16 October 2026, the day after release.

What you run	What happens
`curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh \	sh`
Tailscale's manual steps with stonking in the URLs	both downloads 404, tee writes two empty files, and apt-get install says Unable to locate package tailscale
A deb ... stonking main line written by hand	apt update fails with does not have a Release file
The same steps with resolute	installs Tailscale 1.104.1, tailscaled active and enabled

The one thing to get straight: nothing is wrong with Tailscale on 26.10. The package from the 26.04 repo runs fine. What's missing is a directory on Tailscale's package server, and every official install path looks up the directory by your codename.

1. "ubuntu stonking isn't supported by this script yet."

The install script reads the codename from /etc/os-release (UBUNTU_CODENAME=stonking on 26.10) and asks the package server whether that codename is supported before it touches apt. For stonking the server answers with a 404, so the script bails:

$ curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
ubuntu stonking isn't supported by this script yet.

If you'd like us to support your system better, please email [e-mail]
and tell us what OS you're running.

Please include the following information we gathered from your system:

OS=ubuntu
VERSION=stonking
PACKAGETYPE=apt
UNAME=Linux pe-ts2610-1 7.3.0-9-generic #9-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon Oct  5 10:38:02 UTC 2026 x86_64 GNU/Linux

It then prints your whole /etc/os-release and exits with status 1. This is the friendly failure: it stops before writing anything, and /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ still held only ubuntu.sources afterwards. There's no flag to make the script use another codename (it takes TRACK and TAILSCALE_VERSION, neither of which helps), so skip it and add the repo yourself.

2. "The repository 'https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu stonking Release' does not have a Release file."

This is what you get if your apt source says stonking, for example because you wrote the deb line yourself with the codename, or a config management template fills it in from the OS facts:

$ sudo apt update
Ign:1 https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu stonking InRelease
Hit:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu stonking-security InRelease
Hit:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu stonking InRelease
Err:4 https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu stonking Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 2600:9000:2250:ac00:19:e3cb:f900:93a1 443]
Hit:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu stonking-updates InRelease
Hit:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu stonking-backports InRelease
Reading package lists...
Error: The repository 'https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu stonking Release' does not have a Release file.

apt-get update prints the same line starting E: instead of Error:. Both exit with status 100, which matters in a script or a cloud-init run: one missing vendor repo fails the whole update, not just the Tailscale part.

"Does not have a Release file" sounds like a broken repo. It isn't. The 404 Not Found on the Err: line is the real message: that suite doesn't exist on the server. It's the same thing I hit with Docker's and HashiCorp's repos in the 26.04 to 26.10 upgrade, and the fix is the same too.

3. The quiet one: "Unable to locate package tailscale"

Tailscale's own manual instructions are two curl | sudo tee lines with the codename in the URL. Swap in stonking and both URLs 404, but look at what happens:

$ curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/stonking.noarmor.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null; echo "pipe exit=$?"
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404
pipe exit=0
$ curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/stonking.tailscale-keyring.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list; echo "pipe exit=$?"
curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404
pipe exit=0

The pipeline's exit status is tee's, and tee happily wrote what it was given, which was nothing. You now have a 0 byte keyring and a 0 byte list file:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 16 17:58 /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Oct 16 17:58 /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg

An empty list file has no sources in it, so sudo apt-get update succeeds without a word about Tailscale, and the failure turns up one command later, looking like a typo:

$ sudo apt-get install -y tailscale
Reading package lists...
Building dependency tree...
Reading state information...
E: Unable to locate package tailscale

If you see that, cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list. Empty means the download failed. The next section overwrites both files, so there's nothing to clean up first.

4. The fix: use the resolute repo

Same steps as Tailscale's 26.04 instructions, with resolute where you'd expect stonking:

curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/resolute.noarmor.gpg \
  | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
curl -fsSL https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/resolute.tailscale-keyring.list \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y tailscale

The second tee echoes the file, which is how you know it isn't empty this time:

# Tailscale packages for ubuntu resolute
deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg] https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu resolute main

apt-get update fetched resolute InRelease and the package lists, and the install pulled in tailscale-archive-keyring alongside it (a recommended package that owns /usr/share/keyrings/tailscale-archive-keyring.gpg from then on):

Setting up tailscale-archive-keyring (1.35.181)…
Setting up tailscale (1.104.1)…
Created symlink '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/tailscaled.service' → '/usr/lib/systemd/system/tailscaled.service'.

Check it:

tailscale version
systemctl is-active tailscaled
systemctl is-enabled tailscaled

1.104.1
  tailscale commit: 7f4efe814ff14b064eb080344389ceb9ea2d37ac
  long version: 1.104.1-t7f4efe814-g8da26756c
  other commit: 8da26756c9a2af700dfd05fa38d21b1eef2bcaa2
  go version: go1.27.1 (tailscale/go 24ee2fd061)
active
enabled

Is it safe to run a 26.04 package on 26.10? For Tailscale, in practice yes. The signing key is the same file for every suite (the resolute, questing and noble keys all had the same sha256 when I checked), and 1.104.1 is the same version the static tarball ships. The only cost is one line in a list file to change once Tailscale publishes stonking, which section 7 covers.

Updates come through apt as normal. I downgraded to 1.102.5 to check, and apt list --upgradable offered tailscale 1.104.1, which sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade tailscale put back with tailscaled still active. One thing worth knowing: Ubuntu's unattended-upgrades only allows Ubuntu's own origins by default, so it won't update Tailscale on its own. Run sudo apt upgrade now and then. (sudo tailscale update --dry-run also recognised the apt install, but I only ran a real tailscale update on the static install below.)

I'd just use the resolute repo for the time being.

5. Or run the static binaries

If you'd rather not point apt at another release's repo, Tailscale publishes static binaries for Linux. The tarball has tailscale, tailscaled and a systemd/ folder with the unit and its defaults file. Tailscale's page shows starting tailscaled by hand and points at the unit in the tarball. To install it as a service the way the package does, put the files where the unit expects them (it runs /usr/sbin/tailscaled and reads /etc/default/tailscaled):

curl -fsSLO https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale_1.104.1_amd64.tgz
tar xzf tailscale_1.104.1_amd64.tgz
cd tailscale_1.104.1_amd64
sudo install -m 755 tailscale /usr/bin/tailscale
sudo install -m 755 tailscaled /usr/sbin/tailscaled
sudo install -m 644 systemd/tailscaled.service /etc/systemd/system/tailscaled.service
sudo install -m 644 systemd/tailscaled.defaults /etc/default/tailscaled
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now tailscaled

1.104.1 was the current stable version when I tested; check the package page for the latest, and use arm64 instead of amd64 on an ARM box (I only tested amd64). I did this on the same box after sudo apt-get purge tailscale tailscale-archive-keyring and removing the list and keyring files, so nothing from section 4 was left over.

Created symlink '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/tailscaled.service' → '/etc/systemd/system/tailscaled.service'.

tailscale version printed the same 1.104.1 block, and systemctl is-active tailscaled and is-enabled said active and enabled. After a reboot it came back active on its own.

Without apt, updates are up to you, and tailscale update handles them. I put 1.102.5 binaries in place and ran it:

$ sudo tailscale update --yes
Updating Tailscale from 1.102.5 to 1.104.1; --yes given, continuing without prompts.
Downloading "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale_1.104.1_amd64.tgz"
Download size: 41130123
Downloading "https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/tailscale_1.104.1_amd64.tgz.sig"
Signature OK
Extracting "/root/.cache/tailscale-update/tailscale_1.104.1_amd64.tgz"
Updated /usr/bin/tailscale
Updated /usr/sbin/tailscaled
Success

It checks the signature, replaces both binaries, and restarted the service: tailscale version --daemon showed the daemon at 1.104.1 straight after, and the service's start time had moved. Don't pipe it into head to keep the output short, though. I did, head closed the pipe, and the update died partway through the download with the old binaries still in place.

So my pick is the resolute repo. It's one file to change later, and apt keeps track of what it installed. The static route is for when you don't want another release's repo on the box at all.

6. Join the tailnet

Either way, joining is the same as on any other release:

sudo tailscale up

To authenticate, visit:

    https://login.tailscale.com/a/5021...

Open that URL in a browser logged into your tailnet and approve the machine. I tested on a throwaway box with no auth key, so I stopped here: I haven't shown it joining a tailnet on 26.10, only that the daemon runs and hands out a login URL (with both installs). Before that, tailscale status just says Logged out.

For a headless server, use an auth key with sudo tailscale up --authkey ...; the 26.04 guide covers it, along with checking the connection with tailscale ip -4 and tailscale ping.

Once it's on the tailnet, the first thing I do is SSH in over Tailscale, usually to test it before I start throwing apps on it.

7. Move to stonking when it ships

Tailscale will publish a stonking repo; I don't know when. The install script's own check is the easiest thing to watch:

curl -fsS https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/stonking/installer-supported

Today that fails with curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404. For resolute it prints OK. When stonking prints OK, change the suite in your list file and update:

sudo sed -i 's/ resolute / stonking /' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
sudo apt-get update

The keyring stays as it is, since it's the same key. I ran that sed on the lab box to check it edits the right word, and today apt-get update then fails with the does not have a Release file error from section 2, as you'd expect; I put resolute back with the reverse sed and it fetched cleanly again. What I couldn't test is the real stonking repo, because it doesn't exist yet. The comment line in the file will still say resolute; apt ignores it.

If you used the static binaries, there's nothing to switch: tailscale update keeps working. If you want to move to the apt package later, I'd remove the four files from section 5 first (I didn't test installing the package over them).

As for going back to an LTS: I'll stay with 26.10.

Gotchas I hit

• The install script refuses 26.10 outright and leaves nothing behind, which is the good failure.
• curl -fsSL ... | sudo tee exits 0 when the download 404s, and leaves an empty keyring and an empty list file. The error shows up later as Unable to locate package tailscale.
• does not have a Release file is a 404, not a broken repo, and it fails the whole apt update with status 100.
• unattended-upgrades won't touch Tailscale's repo by default; update it yourself.
• tailscale update --yes | head kills the update partway through.
• I couldn't join a tailnet from the lab (no auth key), so everything here stops at the login URL.

Quick reference

Task	Command
Is there a 26.10 repo yet?	curl -fsS https://pkgs.tailscale.com/stable/ubuntu/stonking/installer-supported
Install from the 26.04 repo	resolute.noarmor.gpg and resolute.tailscale-keyring.list, then sudo apt-get install -y tailscale
Check for the empty list file	cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list
Static binaries	tailscale to /usr/bin, tailscaled to /usr/sbin, unit to /etc/systemd/system, defaults to /etc/default/tailscaled
Check the install	tailscale version, systemctl is-active tailscaled
Update	sudo apt upgrade (repo), sudo tailscale update (static)
Join	sudo tailscale up
Move to stonking later	sudo sed -i 's/ resolute / stonking /' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/tailscale.list

Same Tailscale, borrowed from 26.04 for now, and one word to change when stonking shows up.