Issue Station
Sign In
Tools hereToolbox

openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Bonjour plugin failure causes infinite restart loop in 2026.4.24 when running in a bridged container [2 comments, 3 participants]

Official PRs (…)
ON THIS PAGE

Recommended Tools

×6

Utilities matched from this issue’s tags and category — try them while you read without losing context.

GitHub issue graph ai analysis

Paste a GitHub issue URL. We fetch that issue, discover linked issues from bodies/comments/timeline, collect linked pull requests, and produce a structured English report.

The report is written in English Markdown for sharing and archival.

Helpful · Quick feedback

Loading…
GitHub stats
openclaw/openclaw#72303•Fetched 2026-04-27 05:31:52
View on GitHub
Comments
2
Participants
3
Timeline
3
Reactions
0
Author
ciberkidsciberkids
Participants
ciberkidsciberkidsclawsweeper[bot]clawsweeper[bot]cypherbitscypherbits
Timeline (top)
commented ×2closed ×1

Since upgrading from 2026.4.23 to 2026.4.24, the gateway enters an infinite restart loop when the bonjour mDNS advertiser fails to announce itself. This is a regression — the same container setup ran stably on 2026.4.23.

Running in a bridged container (podman/Docker default bridge network), mDNS multicast packets (224.0.0.251:5353) never leave the bridge, so the bonjour advertisement is always stuck in probing or announcing. In 2026.4.23 this was handled gracefully (gateway remained running). In 2026.4.24 the bonjour failure triggers a process exit, causing systemd Restart=always to loop indefinitely.

After ~1800 restarts in 19 hours the gateway is completely unusable. HTTP port 18789 returns 200 for about 20 seconds per cycle before the container exits again.

Root Cause

Since upgrading from 2026.4.23 to 2026.4.24, the gateway enters an infinite restart loop when the bonjour mDNS advertiser fails to announce itself. This is a regression — the same container setup ran stably on 2026.4.23.

Running in a bridged container (podman/Docker default bridge network), mDNS multicast packets (224.0.0.251:5353) never leave the bridge, so the bonjour advertisement is always stuck in probing or announcing. In 2026.4.23 this was handled gracefully (gateway remained running). In 2026.4.24 the bonjour failure triggers a process exit, causing systemd Restart=always to loop indefinitely.

After ~1800 restarts in 19 hours the gateway is completely unusable. HTTP port 18789 returns 200 for about 20 seconds per cycle before the container exits again.

Fix Action

Workaround

Disabling bonjour in openclaw.json stops the loop immediately:

"plugins": {
  "entries": {
    "bonjour": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

After this change the gateway starts up cleanly with 7 plugins and stays running stably.

Code Example

[plugins] bonjour: restarting advertiser (service stuck in announcing for 19861ms
  (gateway fqdn=a3ce6a455e47 (OpenClaw)._openclaw-gw._tcp.local. host=openclaw.local. port=18789 state=announcing))
systemd: openclaw.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1810.
systemd: Stopped OpenClaw AI Agent.
systemd: Started OpenClaw AI Agent.
[gateway] ready (8 plugins: acpx, bonjour, browser, device-pair, memory-core, phone-control, talk-voice, telegram; 4.5s)
... (repeats)

---

"plugins": {
  "entries": {
    "bonjour": { "enabled": false }
  }
}
RAW_BUFFERClick to expand / collapse

Summary

Since upgrading from 2026.4.23 to 2026.4.24, the gateway enters an infinite restart loop when the bonjour mDNS advertiser fails to announce itself. This is a regression — the same container setup ran stably on 2026.4.23.

Running in a bridged container (podman/Docker default bridge network), mDNS multicast packets (224.0.0.251:5353) never leave the bridge, so the bonjour advertisement is always stuck in probing or announcing. In 2026.4.23 this was handled gracefully (gateway remained running). In 2026.4.24 the bonjour failure triggers a process exit, causing systemd Restart=always to loop indefinitely.

After ~1800 restarts in 19 hours the gateway is completely unusable. HTTP port 18789 returns 200 for about 20 seconds per cycle before the container exits again.

Log pattern (repeats every ~20-40 seconds)

[plugins] bonjour: restarting advertiser (service stuck in announcing for 19861ms
  (gateway fqdn=a3ce6a455e47 (OpenClaw)._openclaw-gw._tcp.local. host=openclaw.local. port=18789 state=announcing))
systemd: openclaw.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1810.
systemd: Stopped OpenClaw AI Agent.
systemd: Started OpenClaw AI Agent.
[gateway] ready (8 plugins: acpx, bonjour, browser, device-pair, memory-core, phone-control, talk-voice, telegram; 4.5s)
... (repeats)

Workaround

Disabling bonjour in openclaw.json stops the loop immediately:

"plugins": {
  "entries": {
    "bonjour": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

After this change the gateway starts up cleanly with 7 plugins and stays running stably.

Environment

  • OpenClaw: 2026.4.24 (cbcfdf62c7297bda66009ea7476f053c3e9addab)
  • Previous working version: 2026.4.23
  • OS: AlmaLinux 9 (SELinux enforcing), kernel 5.14
  • Runtime: Podman quadlet (systemd-managed), default bridge network (not --network=host)
  • Architecture: amd64

Expected behavior

The bonjour/mDNS advertiser failure (expected in bridged containers where multicast is unavailable) should be handled gracefully — log a warning and continue running, as it did in 2026.4.23. The gateway should not exit when mDNS advertisement is unavailable.

extent analysis

TL;DR

Disabling the bonjour plugin in openclaw.json is the most likely fix to prevent the infinite restart loop.

Guidance

  • The bonjour mDNS advertiser failure is causing the gateway to exit and restart indefinitely, so disabling it can mitigate the issue.
  • To verify the fix, check the gateway's logs for the absence of restart messages and ensure it remains running stably.
  • If the bonjour functionality is required, consider configuring the container network to allow multicast packets or using a different discovery mechanism.
  • Review the openclaw.json configuration to ensure that disabling bonjour does not affect other critical plugins or functionality.

Example

"plugins": {
  "entries": {
    "bonjour": { "enabled": false }
  }
}

This configuration change disables the bonjour plugin, preventing the infinite restart loop.

Notes

The issue is specific to the 2026.4.24 version, and the workaround may not be necessary in future versions that address this regression.

Recommendation

Apply the workaround by disabling the bonjour plugin, as it is a simple and effective solution to prevent the infinite restart loop.

Vote matrix · Quick signals

Works
Did the solution work? Tap to confirm.
Easy Fix
Was it a quick fix?
Time Saver
Did it save you time?
Blocking
Was it severely blocking?
Common Issue
Are others likely hitting this too?
Flaky / Intermittent
Is it intermittent?
Verified / Reproducible
Can you reproduce it reliably?
Loading…

FAQ

Expected behavior

The bonjour/mDNS advertiser failure (expected in bridged containers where multicast is unavailable) should be handled gracefully — log a warning and continue running, as it did in 2026.4.23. The gateway should not exit when mDNS advertisement is unavailable.

#api#ssr#installation#tensor shape#container setup

Still need to ship something?

×6

Another batch ranked right after the header list — different links, same matching logic.

Back to top recommendations

TRENDING

openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix [Bug]: Bonjour plugin failure causes infinite restart loop in 2026.4.24 when running in a bridged container [2 comments, 3 participants]