Bug Report: Bonjour/ciao mDNS plugin causes repeated gateway crashes on headless Linux VPS ("CIAO PROBING CANCELLED")
Version: 2026.4.24 (and previous weeks)
Environment:
- Ubuntu 24.04 VPS (Contabo)
- Headless
gateway.mode: local, bind: loopback
- Both Avahi daemon (
avahi-daemon) and OpenClaw's bonjour plugin active → mDNS stack conflict
avahi-daemon explicitly logs: *** WARNING: Detected another IPv4 mDNS stack running on this host. This makes mDNS unreliable...
Symptoms:
- Bonjour plugin watchdog gets stuck in
probing / announcing state for ~12-13 seconds.
- Triggers unhandled promise rejection:
CIAO PROBING CANCELLED or CIAO ANNOUNCEMENT CANCELLED.
- Gateway process exits with status 1.
- systemd restarts it in a tight loop.
- Internal WS probe fails (
ECONNRESET / timeout).
- Multiple stability bundles created (see attached pattern).
Reproduction:
- Run on a Debian/Ubuntu system that has Avahi installed (common on VPS).
- Leave
plugins.bonjour.enabled default (or even set to false — watchdog still runs).
- Observe gateway logs +
journalctl -u openclaw-gateway.service.
Workaround that works:
"plugins": {
"entries": {
"bonjour": {
"enabled": false,
"logLevel": "silent"
}
}
}
(Disabling the plugin + suppressing logs stops the crashes.)
Requested fix:
- Make the bonjour/ciao integration robust against other mDNS stacks (proper error handling on probing/announcement cancellation).
- Or add auto-disable logic when Avahi is detected.
- Prevent unhandled rejection from crashing the entire gateway.
Attached:
- Multiple stability bundles from
/root/.openclaw/logs/stability/ (latest ones from 2026-04-26)
journalctl excerpts showing the exact rejection
openclaw security audit --deep output (shows related exposure warnings but not this bug)
This has been a recurring source of instability on this VPS.
Bug Report: Bonjour/ciao mDNS plugin causes repeated gateway crashes on headless Linux VPS ("CIAO PROBING CANCELLED")
Version: 2026.4.24 (and previous weeks)
Environment:
gateway.mode: local,bind: loopbackavahi-daemon) and OpenClaw's bonjour plugin active → mDNS stack conflictavahi-daemonexplicitly logs:*** WARNING: Detected another IPv4 mDNS stack running on this host. This makes mDNS unreliable...Symptoms:
probing/announcingstate for ~12-13 seconds.CIAO PROBING CANCELLEDorCIAO ANNOUNCEMENT CANCELLED.ECONNRESET/ timeout).Reproduction:
plugins.bonjour.enableddefault (or even set to false — watchdog still runs).journalctl -u openclaw-gateway.service.Workaround that works:
(Disabling the plugin + suppressing logs stops the crashes.)
Requested fix:
Attached:
/root/.openclaw/logs/stability/(latest ones from 2026-04-26)journalctlexcerpts showing the exact rejectionopenclaw security audit --deepoutput (shows related exposure warnings but not this bug)This has been a recurring source of instability on this VPS.