Gateway ist not starting anymore in newest release

[knotty quarry]

I just updated via the gateway dashboard update button from 2026.2.22 to 2.23. Now my Gateway is not starting anymore.

it seems the service just got deleted.
systemctl status openclaw-gateway.service
Unit openclaw-gateway.service could not be found.

I'm running openclaw in an ubuntu vm localy.

Is there a quick fix to create the service again?

[random owl]

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[knotty quarry]

Fixed it with claudecode 🙂

[worn crane]

i have the same problem. Running openclaw on a debian machine on a seperated VLan. But cannot reach it anymore by its ipaddress. Even when during onboading selecting LAN it's not working Gateway stopped. here is a snippet of my config. "gateway": {
"port": 18789,
"mode": "local",
"bind": "auto",
"customBindHost": "172.16.xx.xx",
"controlUi": {
"allowInsecureAuth": true,
"dangerouslyDisableDeviceAuth": true
}, and this one also doesn't work. "gateway": {
"port": 18789,
"mode": "local",
"bind": "lan",
"controlUi": {
"allowInsecureAuth": true,
"dangerouslyDisableDeviceAuth": true
},

[drowsy plinth]

On Linux the Gateway service is usually a systemd user unit, so systemctl status … (system scope) will say “Unit … could not be found” even though nothing got deleted.

1) First check if it’s just the wrong systemd scope / name

Run:

openclaw --version

systemctl --user status openclaw-gateway.service
systemctl --user list-unit-files 'openclaw-gateway*'

If you’re using an OpenClaw profile, the unit name becomes:

• openclaw-gateway-<profile>.service

2) Recreate/repair the service (quick fix)

This rewrites the unit file to match your current install:

openclaw gateway install --force
openclaw gateway restart

If you prefer to do it via systemctl:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now openclaw-gateway.service   # or openclaw-gateway-<profile>.service

Docs: https://docs.openclaw.ai/cli/gateway and https://docs.openclaw.ai/gateway

3) If you “can’t reach it by IP” (your config snippet)

You currently have:

• gateway.bind: "auto" + gateway.customBindHost: "172.16.x.x"

customBindHost is only used when:

• gateway.bind: "custom"

So either switch to:

gateway: { bind: "custom", customBindHost: "172.16.x.x" }

or just use:

gateway: { bind: "lan" }

Also: any non-loopback bind requires auth (token/password) or the Gateway may refuse to start/bind. If needed:

openclaw doctor --generate-gateway-token

4) If you need it to stay up after logout/reboot

Enable lingering for your user (systemd user service persistence):

sudo loginctl enable-linger "$USER"