# syntax=docker/dockerfile:1.24.0@sha256:87999aa3d42bdc6bea60565083ee17e86d1f3339802f543c0d03998580f9cb89 # ============================================================================= # Multi-architecture build # ============================================================================= # Supported MikroTik Container architectures (build with `docker buildx`): # linux/amd64 x86 / CHR # linux/arm64 RB5009, CCR2xxx, hAP ax3, L009, Chateau (most modern) # linux/arm/v7 ARMv7: hAP ac2, RB3011, RB4011, RB1100AHx4 # # NOT supported here: ARMv5 (hEX Refresh / hAP ax S, EN7562CT CPU). ARMv5 has # no Alpine/musl base image, so it cannot use the musl + scratch design below; # it would need a glibc (Debian) base and produces a much larger image. See # README for details if you need it. # # The Go builder cross-compiles, so it always runs NATIVELY on the build host # ($BUILDPLATFORM) for speed; only the busybox stage and the final image run on # the target platform. # ============================================================================= # Stage 1: Build Tailscale combined binary (cross-compiled, runs natively) # ============================================================================= FROM --platform=$BUILDPLATFORM golang:1.26.3-alpine@sha256:91eda9776261207ea25fd06b5b7fed8d397dd2c0a283e77f2ab6e91bfa71079d AS builder # renovate: datasource=github-releases depName=tailscale packageName=tailscale/tailscale ARG TAILSCALE_VERSION=v1.98.3 # Provided automatically by buildx for the target platform. ARG TARGETOS ARG TARGETARCH ARG TARGETVARIANT RUN apk add --no-cache \ git \ upx \ ca-certificates # Clone the exact release tag (no full history) RUN git clone --depth 1 --branch ${TAILSCALE_VERSION} \ https://github.com/tailscale/tailscale.git /src/tailscale WORKDIR /src/tailscale # Build a minimal combined binary (tailscale CLI + tailscaled daemon in one file). # # Tag strategy — ALLOWLIST, not blocklist: # 1. cmd/featuretags --min --add=osrouter generates the full ts_omit_* set # (identical to build_dist.sh --extra-small), omitting every optional feature. # 2. We pipe that through sed to REMOVE the ts_omit_ tags for the features # we explicitly want, leaving everything else omitted. # 3. We prepend ts_include_cli (combined daemon+CLI binary). # # This means any NEW ts_omit_* tag added in a future Tailscale release will # automatically be omitted — we only get features we consciously opt into. # # Features opted in (removed from the omit list): # advertiseexitnode — run as exit node for the tailnet # advertiseroutes — advertise LAN subnets to the tailnet # useexitnode — route router's own traffic via a remote exit node # useroutes — accept routes advertised by other tailnet nodes # dns — MagicDNS; configure MikroTik DNS to forward # *.ts.net → 100.100.100.100; use --no-dns daemon # flag to skip writing /etc/resolv.conf # portmapper — NAT-PMP / PCP / UPnP to punch through upstream NAT # listenrawdisco — raw sockets for more robust disco/NAT-traversal # health — health subsystem required by 'tailscale status' # iptables — Linux iptables support for routing rules # unixsocketidentity — REQUIRED for the CLI to talk to the daemon. Without it, # the localapi can't verify a request arrived over the # trusted unix socket, so PermitRead/PermitWrite are # always false and EVERY CLI call (status, up, set, ...) # returns "access denied" (tailscale/tailscale#17873). # ipnbus — IPN bus watch. Without it, 'tailscale up' cannot wait # for completion: it fires config at the daemon and # returns immediately ("built with ts_omit_ipnbus; not # waiting for completion") WITHOUT printing the auth URL # or confirming success. Including it makes interactive # 'up' behave normally (blocks, prints login URL). # # Everything else remains omitted, including (rationale): # clientupdate — DELIBERATELY removed. The built-in updater would download # the FULL official upstream tailscale binary (tens of MB, # with all features) directly onto the device, defeating the # entire point of this minimal build and risking filling the # 16 MB flash. It also can't update a binary baked into a # read-only container image. Updates are instead delivered by # rebuilding/republishing this image (CI) and pulling the new # image only when it actually changed (see the RouterOS # update script). This keeps the on-device footprint minimal # and the update path controlled, reproducible, and flash-safe. # cachenetmap — DELIBERATELY omitted. It ONLY persists the netmap to disk so # the node can come online from the last-known config after a # COLD START while the control plane is simultaneously # unreachable. The in-memory netmap is NOT gated by this tag: # a running daemon that loses its control connection keeps its # map and can still reach known peers (data path is direct # WireGuard/DERP, not via control). The only loss is the narrow # reboot-during-control-outage case. In exchange we avoid disk # writes on every netmap delta (frequent on busy tailnets), # which is exactly the flash wear we want to avoid. # logtail — no persistent log writes to flash; also pass # --no-logs-no-support at runtime # netstack+gro — userspace networking; router uses kernel TUN # ssh — not needed; access via MikroTik SSH + tailscale CLI # all GUI/desktop/cloud/k8s features — irrelevant for a headless router RUN mkdir -p /out && \ ALL_OMIT=$(GOOS= GOARCH= go run ./cmd/featuretags --min --add=osrouter) && \ TAGS=$(echo "ts_include_cli,${ALL_OMIT}" | \ sed \ -e 's/ts_omit_advertiseexitnode,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_advertiseroutes,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_useexitnode,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_useroutes,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_dns,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_portmapper,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_listenrawdisco,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_health,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_iptables,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_unixsocketidentity,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/ts_omit_ipnbus,\{0,1\}//g' \ -e 's/,$//' \ ) && \ echo "Build tags: ${TAGS}" && \ # Map Docker's TARGETARCH/TARGETVARIANT to Go's GOARCH/GOARM. # For arm/v7 -> GOARM=7 (hardfloat). Other arches leave GOARM unset. GOARM="" && \ if [ "${TARGETARCH}" = "arm" ]; then \ case "${TARGETVARIANT}" in \ v7) GOARM=7 ;; \ v6) GOARM=6 ;; \ v5) GOARM=5 ;; \ *) GOARM=7 ;; \ esac; \ fi && \ echo "Cross-compiling: GOOS=${TARGETOS:-linux} GOARCH=${TARGETARCH} GOARM=${GOARM}" && \ CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=${TARGETOS:-linux} GOARCH=${TARGETARCH} GOARM=${GOARM} \ go build \ -tags "${TAGS}" \ -gcflags="all=-l" \ -ldflags="-s -w" \ -trimpath \ -o /out/tailscale.combined \ ./cmd/tailscaled # Compress with UPX LZMA. # Expected: ~14 MB raw → ~3.8 MB compressed (with -gcflags=all=-l) RUN upx --lzma --best /out/tailscale.combined # Lay out the final /usr/local/bin HERE (binary + argv[0] symlinks) so the final # stage can bring it in with a SINGLE COPY layer. Creating the symlinks with a # `RUN` in the final scratch stage instead would force overlayfs to copy-up the # whole directory — duplicating the ~3 MB binary into another layer and roughly # doubling the extracted on-disk size on RouterOS (overlay layers are extracted # separately). Building it in one place keeps it to one copy. RUN mkdir -p /out/usrlocalbin && \ mv /out/tailscale.combined /out/usrlocalbin/tailscale.combined && \ ln -s /usr/local/bin/tailscale.combined /out/usrlocalbin/tailscale && \ ln -s /usr/local/bin/tailscale.combined /out/usrlocalbin/tailscaled # Entrypoint wrapper: enable IP forwarding inside the container's network # namespace, then exec tailscaled. tailscaled does NOT reliably enable IPv6 # forwarding itself in a container netns ("IPv6 forwarding is disabled" warning), # which silently breaks advertised IPv6 subnet routes. The sysctls ARE writable # from inside a RouterOS container, so we set both here. Written in the builder # stage so it ships in the same single /usr/local/bin COPY layer (preserves the # overlayfs single-copy property). `exec` keeps tailscaled as PID 1. RUN printf '%s\n' \ '#!/bin/sh' \ '# Enable IPv4/IPv6 forwarding. Required for advertised subnet routes and' \ '# exit-node functionality.' \ 'for f in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward /proc/sys/net/ipv6/conf/all/forwarding; do' \ ' if [ -w "$f" ]; then echo 1 > "$f" 2>/dev/null || echo "warn: could not write $f"; fi' \ 'done' \ 'exec /usr/local/bin/tailscaled "$@"' \ > /out/usrlocalbin/entrypoint.sh && \ chmod +x /out/usrlocalbin/entrypoint.sh # ============================================================================= # Stage 2: Custom minimal busybox # ============================================================================= # The official busybox:musl image ships all ~404 applets at ~1.24 MB. For a # debug shell on a flash-constrained router we only need ~100 applets, so we # build a static busybox from source with a curated applet set, then UPX it # down to ~230 kB on disk. # # UPX is normally dangerous with busybox: the ash shell's standalone applet # dispatch re-execs /proc/self/exe, which UPX breaks, so typed commands fail # (https://github.com/upx/upx/issues/248, closed as "invalid"). We sidestep # this by building WITHOUT the standalone/nofork features (see # busybox-applets.config) and providing an explicit /bin/ symlink # farm. Commands then resolve via the ordinary PATH -> symlink -> argv[0] # dispatch, which works fine under UPX. The cost is a fork+exec per command, # acceptable for an occasional debug shell. RouterOS stores the EXTRACTED # rootfs on disk (overlayfs), so the ~190 kB UPX saving is real on-disk space. # # This stage runs on the TARGET platform (no --platform override): gcc then # produces native target-arch binaries directly. Under buildx this is # transparently emulated via binfmt/QEMU for non-native targets. FROM alpine:3.23.4@sha256:5b10f432ef3da1b8d4c7eb6c487f2f5a8f096bc91145e68878dd4a5019afde11 AS busybox # renovate: datasource=docker depName=busybox versioning=docker ARG BUSYBOX_VERSION=1.37.0 RUN apk add --no-cache build-base linux-headers wget bzip2 perl upx RUN wget -q https://busybox.net/downloads/busybox-${BUSYBOX_VERSION}.tar.bz2 \ && tar xf busybox-${BUSYBOX_VERSION}.tar.bz2 WORKDIR /busybox-${BUSYBOX_VERSION} # allnoconfig = every feature OFF; then enable only the curated applet set. COPY busybox-applets.config /tmp/applets.config RUN make allnoconfig && \ while read -r sym; do \ case "$sym" in ''|\#*) continue ;; esac; \ if grep -q "^# CONFIG_${sym} is not set" .config; then \ sed -i "s/^# CONFIG_${sym} is not set/CONFIG_${sym}=y/" .config; \ elif ! grep -q "^CONFIG_${sym}=y" .config; then \ echo "CONFIG_${sym}=y" >> .config; \ fi; \ done < /tmp/applets.config && \ yes "" | make oldconfig >/dev/null 2>&1 && \ make -j"$(nproc)" >/dev/null 2>&1 && \ strip busybox # Lay out a minimal rootfs with busybox + an applet symlink per applet. # Symlinks (argv[0] dispatch) are how busybox selects an applet and make the # applets resolvable via $PATH from inside the shell. We derive the applet # names from the build .config: a symbol is an applet if its lowercase name # resolves to a runnable applet (busybox returns "applet not found" on stderr # for non-applet symbols like FEATURE_* / STATIC, which we filter out). # We generate symlinks from the UNCOMPRESSED binary (so the probe is reliable), # then UPX-compress the binary in place afterwards. RUN mkdir -p /rootfs/bin && \ grep '^CONFIG_.*=y' .config \ | sed -e 's/^CONFIG_//' -e 's/=y$//' \ | tr 'A-Z' 'a-z' \ | while read -r app; do \ if ! ./busybox "$app" --help 2>&1 | grep -q "applet not found"; then \ ln -sf /bin/busybox /rootfs/bin/"$app"; \ fi; \ done && \ ln -sf /bin/busybox /rootfs/bin/sh && \ echo "Applet symlinks created: $(ls /rootfs/bin | wc -l)" && \ upx --lzma --best busybox && \ cp busybox /rootfs/bin/busybox # ============================================================================= # Stage 3: Final runtime image # ============================================================================= FROM scratch # Release version (the git tag, e.g. v1.98.3-mt.1), injected by CI at build # time. This is the value the MikroTik update cronjob compares against the # registry to decide whether to recreate the container: it changes ONLY on a # meaningful release (Tailscale bump -> mt.1, or a manual mt.N), never on a # build-system-only rebuild. Defaults to "dev" for local builds. ARG OCI_VERSION=dev # OCI image annotations. org.opencontainers.image.version is the canonical place # for the release version and is what the router reads back from the registry. LABEL org.opencontainers.image.title="mikrotik-tailscale" \ org.opencontainers.image.description="Minimal Tailscale image for MikroTik RouterOS Container" \ org.opencontainers.image.source="https://gitea.lumpiasty.xyz/lumpiasty/mikrotik-tailscale" \ org.opencontainers.image.version="${OCI_VERSION}" # Custom static busybox + applet symlinks (provides /bin/sh and utilities) COPY --from=busybox /rootfs/ / # CA certificates (needed to reach Tailscale coordination server) COPY --from=builder /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt /etc/ssl/certs/ # Combined Tailscale binary + its argv[0] symlinks, in a single layer (built in # the builder stage to avoid overlayfs copy-up duplicating the binary — see the # builder stage comment). COPY --from=builder /out/usrlocalbin/ /usr/local/bin/ # Ensure /usr/local/bin and busybox dirs are on PATH for interactive shells ENV PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- # Volume layout (to be created by deploy script): # # /var/lib/tailscale — persistent state (authkey, node identity) # → bind-mount to MikroTik disk storage # → survives reboots, written infrequently (only on # auth / key rotation / prefs change) # → netmap is NOT cached to disk (cachenetmap is # omitted), so this dir sees no per-netmap writes # # /var/run/tailscale — runtime socket dir # → tmpfs, lost on reboot (expected) # ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- VOLUME ["/var/lib/tailscale"] # entrypoint.sh enables IP forwarding (incl. IPv6) in the container netns, then # exec's tailscaled with the CMD flags below as its arguments. ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/local/bin/entrypoint.sh"] # Default flags: # --no-logs-no-support disables logtail uploads (logtail binary code is # omitted, but the flag also suppresses any remaining # log buffering and prevents the daemon from trying # to write log files) # --state persistent node identity / authkey storage # --socket CLI communication socket (on tmpfs) # --statedir var root (derpmap cache, certs, etc.); no netmap # disk cache here since cachenetmap is omitted CMD ["--no-logs-no-support", \ "--state=/var/lib/tailscale/tailscaled.state", \ "--socket=/var/run/tailscale/tailscaled.sock", \ "--statedir=/var/lib/tailscale"]