Troubleshoot Failed Openclaw Systemd Service

Troubleshoot Failed Openclaw Systemd Service | Generated by AI

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Question: How can I find out why the openclaw-gateway.service systemd user service failed?

Answer:

The service shows status=1/FAILURE but the log is truncated. Here are the ways to dig deeper:

1. Check Full Journal Logs (Most Useful)

journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -n 100 --no-pager

Or follow live as it restarts:

journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -f

2. Check Logs Since Last Boot

journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -b

3. See the Full Error With Verbose Output

journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -n 50 --no-pager -o verbose

4. Run the Binary Directly to See Raw Error

Since it’s a Node.js process, run it manually to capture stderr:

/usr/bin/node /home/lzw/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js gateway --host 0.0.0.0 2>&1

This will print the exact error to your terminal without systemd swallowing it.

5. Check If Node or the Module Has Issues

# Check node is working
node --version

# Check if the module exists
ls /home/lzw/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw/dist/index.js

# Check for missing dependencies
cd /home/lzw/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/openclaw && npm ls 2>&1 | grep "missing\|UNMET"

Quick Diagnosis Summary

Symptom	Likely Cause
`MODULE_NOT_FOUND`	Missing npm dependency
`EADDRINUSE`	Port already in use
`EACCES`	Permission denied on port/file
`SyntaxError`	Node.js version incompatible
`ENOENT`	Config file or path not found

Start with journalctl --user -u openclaw-gateway.service -n 100 --no-pager — that will almost always show you the exact error message from Node.js.

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