Troubleshooting¶

Fixes for the problems you are most likely to hit with the OpenClaw image.

SSH says "Permission denied (publickey)"¶

Connect as ubuntu, not root or ec2-user.
Use the key pair you chose at launch. The image accepts keys only, never a password.
EC2 adds a key pair only at launch. If you launched without one, launch a new instance with a key pair.

SSH times out¶

Check the security group allows TCP 22 from your current IP address. If your address has changed, update the rule.
After several failed logins, fail2ban bans your address for 1 hour. Wait, or from another session unban it:
```
sudo fail2ban-client set sshd unbanip <your-ip>
```
Stopping and starting the instance changes its public IP. Copy the new one from the EC2 console.

`openclaw: command not found`¶

OpenClaw is installed for the ubuntu user, in ~/.npm-global/bin, which is added to PATH by ~/.profile. Run it as ubuntu, not as root, and reload your profile if needed:

source ~/.profile
openclaw --version

The dashboard does not open¶

Use an SSH tunnel and open it at http://localhost:18789.
Open it with the dashboard link that includes the gateway token.
Run openclaw onboard first: the gateway is set up by the wizard.

The agent does not reply¶

Check your AI provider key is valid and has credit, and that the model you chose is available to your account.
Check the channel credentials, for example the Telegram bot token, and that your user is allowed to message the agent.
Run openclaw onboard again to review and fix the settings.

Still stuck?¶

Email info@softwaresushi.com with your instance ID, the image version and what you tried. Do not include keys or tokens.