#Hey admins — please don’t mute me again 😅 I’m genuinely trying to get this working and looking for

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

blazing agate
#

Hey all,

Looking for a bit of help getting OpenClaw running properly.

I’m running this on Ubuntu and have tried both a local install and Docker setup. The gateway starts and binds fine, but I’m having issues getting the dashboard/control UI working consistently — it either won’t load or doesn’t behave properly even though the service looks healthy.

I’ve also been hitting issues getting the WhatsApp integration working/reset properly.

So far I’ve:

  • Run OpenClaw locally and via Docker
  • Confirmed gateway is listening on the configured port
  • Set up token auth in config
  • Configured allowed origins + tested via LAN IP

Still no luck getting stable access to the dashboard or WhatsApp working.

End goal is to use this to manage my home lab — Home Assistant, Jellyfin, and my NAS (movies/TV shows) — and start exploring what automation it can handle across everything.

Longer term, I want it to actively monitor things and notify me when something breaks, e.g.:
“Jellyfin can’t play movie X because of Y — file needs to be removed. Reply YES to fix.”
So basically automated detection + approval-based actions.

If anyone has a working setup (Ubuntu, local or Docker) or has run into this before, keen to hear what fixed it.

If someone’s able to jump in and help get this fully set up, happy to work something out 👍

Please DM me if you can help.

Happy to share configs/logs if needed.

spice falconBOT
#

To help others find answers, you can mark your question as solved via Right click solution message -> Apps -> ✅ Mark Solution

steep troutBOT
west geyserBOT
#

A couple likely culprits jump out:

  1. If you’re opening Control UI on http://<LAN-IP>:18789, that’s probably the main issue. Remote plain HTTP is a non-secure context, so the browser can break device auth/WebCrypto. The stable paths are:
  • local same machine: http://127.0.0.1:18789/
  • remote: openclaw gateway --tailscale serve then open https://<magicdns>/
  • or SSH tunnel back to localhost

Also, LAN/Tailnet browser access still needs a one-time device approval, even with token auth:

openclaw devices list
openclaw devices approve <requestId>
  1. Since you tested local + Docker, make sure you don’t have two different configs/services fighting each other:
openclaw --version
# 
openclaw gateway status
openclaw status --all

If Config (cli) and Config (service) differ, that’s a big clue.

  1. For WhatsApp reset/relink, use the channel commands, not generic login:
openclaw channels logout --channel whatsapp
openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp
openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw pairing list whatsapp

If it’s linked but still silent, it’s often dmPolicy / allowFrom / pairing, not the socket itself.

If you paste these here, I can usually narrow it down pretty fast:

  • openclaw --version
blazing agate
#

Please note the host system is command line online

west geyserBOT
#

Yep, CLI-only host is totally fine. The Control UI runs in your browser elsewhere, not on the Ubuntu box.

What I’d do first is simplify the setup:

  1. Pick one runtime while debugging
    Don’t run local install and Docker at the same time. That’s a good way to end up with mismatched config/state.

  2. Avoid raw LAN HTTP first
    http://<LAN-IP>:18789 is where a lot of Control UI pain starts, because remote plain HTTP can hit secure-context/device-auth issues.

    Use one of these instead:

    • SSH tunnel
      ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 user@host
      then open http://127.0.0.1:18789/
    • or Tailscale Serve with HTTPS
#

  1. Use the built-in dashboard helper
    On the Ubuntu host:

    openclaw dashboard

    That prints the right URL and gives an SSH hint on headless systems.

  2. If you installed from source, make sure the UI was built

    pnpm ui:build

  3. LAN/Tailnet browser access still needs device approval
    Even with token auth:

    openclaw devices list
# 
   openclaw devices approve <requestId>

For WhatsApp reset/relink:

openclaw channels logout --channel whatsapp
openclaw channels login --channel whatsapp
openclaw channels status --probe
openclaw pairing list whatsapp

Also, first thing please paste:

openclaw --version
openclaw status --all