failed to connect to local tailscaled; it doesn't appear to be running (sudo systemctl start tailscaled ?)

Short answer: start the daemon. On Linux: sudo systemctl enable --now tailscaled. Then run sudo tailscale up again. `` failed to connect to local tailscaled; it doesn't appear to be running (sudo systemctl start tailscaled ?) 1. Run sudo systemctl enable --now tailscaled. This starts the daemon now and keeps it enabled across reboots. Expected: no output means success. 2. Confirm with systemctl is-active tailscaled. Expected: active. 3. Retry sudo tailscale status. Expected: your node's info, not the connect error. 4. If the service will not stay up, read journalctl -u tailscaled -n 50. Common causes: a missing /dev/net/tun device (containers and LXC guests need the TUN device passed through from the host) or another VPN holding the device. 5. Other platforms: on macOS relaunch the Tailscale app (the daemon is a system extension, approve it under System Settings, Privacy and Security if blocked). On Windows start the Tailscale service in services.msc. Snap installs: sudo snap restart tailscale. Root cause: client/daemon split. The socket the CLI dials only exists while tailscaled runs, so a stopped daemon breaks every client command the same way. When to use: this exact message on any OS. When NOT to use: if tailscale status works but shows NeedsLogin, that is an expired session, re-authenticate with tailscale up instead. Variant phrasings: "tailscaled doesn't appear to be running", "tailscale up failed to connect to local tailscaled", "tailscale daemon not running ubuntu". Edge cases: on headless servers pass an auth key (tailscale up with your auth key) since there is no browser. Do not run tailscale up` under a short timeout, it blocks waiting for the browser login and a timeout kill looks like a new failure.

Context: The tailscale command you type is only a client. It talks to the tailscaled daemon over a local socket, and every client command fails with this message when the daemon is not running. This is not a network, account, or install problem. It means the background service is down or was never started.