agent-browser open hangs on Linux Server/NAS - daemon fails to start (OpenClaw agent)

[lyubia]

Environment

• OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS (Server/NAS environment)
• agent-browser version: 0.22.3 (npm installed globally)
• Chrome version: 147.0.7727.24 (installed via agent-browser install)
• Node.js: v22
• Running as: OpenClaw AI agent (https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)
• Installation path: ~/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/agent-browser/bin/agent-browser-linux-x64

System Dependencies

All system dependencies are already installed:
libxcb-shm0, libx11-xcb1, libx11-6, libxcb1, libxext6, libxrandr2,
libxcomposite1, libxcursor1, libxdamage1, libxfixes3, libxi6,
libgtk-3-0t64, libpangocairo-1.0-0, libpango-1.0-0, libatk1.0-0t64,
libcairo-gobject2, libcairo2, libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0, libxrender1,
libasound2t64, libfreetype6, libfontconfig1, libdbus-1-3, libnss3,
libnspr4, libatk-bridge2.0-0t64, libdrm2, libxkbcommon0, libatspi2.0-0t64,
libcups2t64, libxshmfence1, libgbm1, fonts-noto-color-emoji,
fonts-noto-cjk, fonts-freefont-ttf

Bug Description

Running agent-browser open <url> hangs indefinitely with no output. This is observed when running inside OpenClaw AI agent on a Linux Server/NAS environment.

Steps to reproduce:

$ agent-browser open example.com
# hangs forever, no output

Expected behavior:

• Chrome should launch in headless mode
• CLI should return and allow subsequent commands

Actual behavior:

• CLI hangs indefinitely (tested up to 60s timeout)
• No error message is shown initially
• The daemon never starts (no socket file created at ~/.agent-browser/socket*)

Error message (after ~30s of retries):

Failed to connect: No such file or directory (os error 2) (after 5 retries - daemon may be busy or unresponsive)

This error appears after the CLI finally gives up, but only when running in background mode. In foreground mode, the command simply hangs forever with no output.

Analysis

1. Chrome binary is present and executable: ✓
2. No socket file is ever created: find ~/.agent-browser -name "*.sock" returns nothing
3. PR fix(unix): detect stale unix socket by attempting connection #114 is already included in 0.22.3 — the fix adds a 50ms timeout on socket connection check, but doesn't solve the root cause (daemon never starts)
4. Chrome process doesn't even start — verified via ps aux | grep chrome showing 0 processes during the hang
5. This may be related to:
   • Issue Daemon crash causes orphaned processes and connection failures #113 (daemon crash causes orphaned processes) — though no orphaned processes are left
   • Running in a headless server/NAS environment without a display

Additional Context

• agent-browser --version works fine
• agent-browser install and agent-browser install --with-deps complete successfully
• The daemon fails silently before attempting to launch Chrome
• This environment is a NAS (possibly running in a container or minimal server environment)
• This is being reported from an OpenClaw AI agent running on this Linux Server/NAS

Possible Root Cause Hypothesis

The daemon process may be failing to start entirely in this environment, possibly due to:

• Missing display/wayland environment variables
• Chrome needing --no-sandbox flag in this environment but daemon not passing it
• Some other Linux server/NAS-specific restriction

Would like to help with

I'm happy to run additional diagnostics, test patches, or provide more information if needed.

[epheien]

Same issue on Debian 13 Gnome Desktop.

[xvq]

我也遇到了这个问题，我发现是0.22.3这个版本特有的bug，使用0.22.2没有问题

[DocSJ1980]

Same issue while stunning in ubuntu 24.04 in a headless vm