Installing a service enables and starts it, so moving an old-package gateway or node host the user had stopped or disabled turned it back on. What was running and enabled is read before the move and put back after it.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
A service counted as the runtime's, or as a half-moved old one on /usr/bin/node, whenever it ran anything under ~/.openclaw, so a script of the user's in that directory could be stopped and rewritten, and seeding could go ahead beside it. The runtime is now OpenClaw's own script as upstream's installer lays it out, under ~/.openclaw/tools/*/lib/node_modules/openclaw, and both checks use that one definition.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
Judging a moved service by whether its program sat under ~/.openclaw missed a retry after a half-finished move, whose unit already ran the runtime's script on /usr/bin/node and so was never selected again; misread a symlinked home against the resolved Node it pins; and would have moved a gateway the user runs on Bun. A service now needs moving while it runs the old package's script, or the runtime's script on /usr/bin/node, the Node the old package pulled in; any other runtime is left alone.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
Since 2026.9.6 upstream's installer keeps the Node a gateway service already ran when it rewrites the unit, so moving a gateway the old package installed left it running the runtime's code on /usr/bin/node, from the nodejs package the old openclaw package pulled in and the seed no longer depends on. A moved service now counts as moved only once its program is under ~/.openclaw, and the reinstall pins the runtime's Node with --runtime-path, which gives the same unit a fresh install gets.
A unit is Omarchy's or the old package's by the program its ExecStart runs or the script it hands that program, not by a path appearing anywhere in the line, so a gateway that merely names ~/.openclaw in an argument is not taken over. The state directory and config overrides are cleared with the profile selectors, since Omarchy's OpenClaw is the default one. Any failure after a running service was stopped for the move names that service, a partial stop included.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
Upstream's installer rewrites a loaded gateway onto the new copy but only warns when it will not start, which let the install finish with no gateway running. A service that was running before the move now has to be running after it, or the install fails and says the service is stopped; a failed seed says so too.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
Upstream's installer runs `gateway install --force` on any gateway it finds loaded, so the old package's gateway has to be stopped before seeding rather than after, and a stop that fails ends the run. The profile selectors are cleared for the whole command, installer included, and every refusal now comes before the package is installed.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
The first E2E run of the migration found that the new runtime cannot install its gateway service while the old package's gateway, still running from deleted files, holds the state directory, so that service is stopped first. Removal also takes the unit backups `openclaw update` leaves behind.
Codex's review found the rest: upstream's installer takes over any loaded gateway service, so a gateway running another OpenClaw, a foreign command on PATH or an openclaw shadowing it are refused before anything is set up; root is refused before --check runs the user's wrapper; --check needs the package, since --now would otherwise run pacman where no terminal can ask for a password; and moving a service clears the selectors that would aim the install at another unit.
Co-Authored-By: Codex XHigh <noreply@openai.com>
