Version manager unsupported on GL-A1300 (Slate Plus)

[remotetohome]

Summary

The Tailscale Version Manager (update/restore) does not work on the GL-A1300 (Slate Plus). All other plugin features — exit node client, kill switch, guest routing, Tailscale SSH — work correctly on this model.

Details

Device: GL-A1300 (Slate Plus), IPQ4018, armv7l, 256MB RAM
Firmware tested: 4.5.22, 4.7.2-beta
Factory Tailscale: v1.6x (significantly older than the v1.80.3 shipped on 4.8.x firmware)
Plugin version: v1.0.17

After attempting to update Tailscale via the plugin's version manager:

• The Tailscale daemon does not restart properly
• Current version displays as "unknown"

This is not specific to our plugin — Tailscale's own web dashboard updater also fails on this device with "binary not found in normal place," even after a full factory reset with no plugin installed.

The root cause is likely the older Tailscale binary layout on firmware 4.5.x/4.7.x (factory v1.6x vs v1.80.3 on 4.8.x routers) combined with the armv7l/256MB RAM constraints of this model.

Workaround

Use the router with the factory Tailscale binary. All plugin features work correctly with the stock v1.6x binary, including exit node client mode and kill switch.

Status

Documenting as a known limitation. The version manager is not expected to work on this model until the upstream Tailscale updater issue is resolved.

[remotetohome]

Architecture note: The A1300 is armv7l (32-bit ARM). This is the first armv7l device where the updater has been attempted. The GL-AX1800 (Flint) is also armv7l but only had install/remove testing — updater was never tested.

Possible root causes to isolate:

1. armv7l binary issue — Admonstrator's tailscaled-linux-arm may not work on GL's armv7l firmware builds
2. Firmware version issue — older GL firmware (4.5.x/4.7.x) may have a different Tailscale binary layout than 4.8.x
3. Both — armv7l + older firmware combination

Next step: test the updater on the GL-AX1800 (Flint, FW 4.6.8, armv7l) to isolate the variable.