Polybar Module and Rofi dmenu for tailscale

• display tailscale VPN connection status in polybar
• enable/disable tailscale from rofi
  • automatically shows one option per available exit node

Setup

Polybar Module

1. Put info-tailscale.sh somewhere on your system, for example to ~/.config/polybar/info-tailscale.sh.
2. In your polybar config, add:

   [module/info-tailscale]
   type = custom/script
   exec = ~/.config/polybar/info-tailscale.sh
   interval = 10
   

   Also add info-tailscale to modules-left, modules-center, or modules-right.

(The demo GIF uses interval = 3 for added effect.)

Rofi Switcher

1. Put choose_vpn_config.sh somewhere on your system, for example ~/.config/scripts/choose_vpn_config.sh.
2. Add a keybinding in your window manager that triggers the script. Example config snippet for i3wm:

   bindsym $mod+Shift+v exec --no-startup-id $HOME/.config/scripts/choose_vpn_config.sh
   

3. Run sudo tailscale up --operator $(whoami) once. This gives your username permission to tailscale up without sudo in the future (i.e. when using the rofi switcher).

Alternative with polkit

Support for the --operator option wasn't unanimous when it was introduced. In case it is removed again in the future, polkit can be used as an alternative for rights elevation:

1. Install polkit and a polkit authentication agent.
   • for example sudo apt install lxpolkit on Debian-based OS
2. Run the agent on session startup.
   • for example exec --no-startup-id lxpolkit when using i3wm
3. Remove the --operator options in choose_vpn_config.sh, and use pkexec for the tailscale invocation.

Font (optional)

For the door icons, I use fontawesome.

Alternatives and Credits

• tailscale widget for my desktop bar - tiling window manager: https://forum.tailscale.com/t/widget-for-my-desktop-bar-tiling-window-manager/623
  • Thanks to sidepodmatt and within for the efficient and succinct way of obtaining the tailscale status with curl (instead of calling tailscale status).
• Linux port of tailscale system tray menu: https://github.com/mattn/tailscale-systray/

Related Projects (not for tailscale)

• Rofi-based interface to enable VPN connections with NetworkManager: https://gitlab.com/DamienCassou/rofi-vpn
• Custom rofi menu that allows for activating and deactivating VPN connections: https://github.com/marcje/rofi-vpn
• Polybar module for Mullvad VPN control: https://github.com/shervinsahba/polybar-vpn-controller