OpenClaw Error response from Daemon: Duplicate mount point /tmp (Docker)

5-10 minute OpenClaw setup:

DigitalOcean 1-click droplet ($24/m), Anthropic API Key ($5), ssh root, OpenClaw dashboard pairing request

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First setup ElevenLabs.io API Key to talk by voice on WhatsApp. For voice note (needed ears too, lots of sudo commands).

>openclaw tui
similar to claude on Claude Code, so I can talk to it on terminal and not using dashboard chat.

deepgram.com API key for ears on WhatsApp voice note.

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Then I ran into this error on WhatsApp in response to my voice notes, and used Claude Code to fix it on the droplet.

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root@openclaw-ubuntu-s-2vcpu-4gb-sfo2-01:~# journalctl -u openclaw -n 100 –no-pager | grep -i “tmp|duplicate|mount”

• Feb 08 23:26:13 openclaw-ubuntu-s-2vcpu-4gb-sfo2-01 node[14695]: 2026-02-08T23:26:13.622Z Embedded agent failed before reply: Error response from
  daemon: Duplicate mount point: /tmp
• Feb 08 23:29:20 openclaw-ubuntu-s-2vcpu-4gb-sfo2-01 node[14695]: 2026-02-08T23:29:20.924Z [diagnostic] lane task error: lane=main durationMs=182
  error=”Error: Error response from daemon: Duplicate mount point: /tmp”

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FOUND IT!

The problem is in your OpenClaw config at /home/openclaw/.openclaw/openclaw.json.

Look at the binds section:
“binds”: [
…
“/tmp:/tmp:rw”, // <– THIS IS THE PROBLEM
…
]

You have /tmp:/tmp:rw as a bind mount, but OpenClaw also creates /tmp as a tmpfs mount by default. Docker doesn’t allow both a bind mount AND a tmpfs
mount for the same path, which is why you get the “Duplicate mount point: /tmp” error.

Fix:

Edit the config file and remove the /tmp:/tmp:rw line:

nano /home/openclaw/.openclaw/openclaw.json

Find and delete this line:
“/tmp:/tmp:rw”,

Then restart OpenClaw:
systemctl restart openclaw

The /tmp directory will still be available in the sandbox containers via the tmpfs mount (which is actually better for performance and security).

● Let’s fix it by editing the config file:

Create a backup first

cp /home/openclaw/.openclaw/openclaw.json /home/openclaw/.openclaw/openclaw.json.backup

Now edit the file to remove the /tmp bind mount

nano /home/openclaw/.openclaw/openclaw.json

In nano:

1. Find the line with “/tmp:/tmp:rw”, (should be around line 11-12)
2. Delete the entire line (including the comma)
3. Press Ctrl + O to save
4. Press Enter to confirm
5. Press Ctrl + X to exit

After editing, the binds section should look like:
“binds”: [
“/home/openclaw/homebrew:/home/openclaw/homebrew:rw”,
“/opt/openclaw:/opt/openclaw:ro”,
“/home/openclaw/.openclaw:/home/openclaw/.openclaw:rw”,
“/home/openclaw/.wacli:/home/openclaw/.wacli:rw”,
“/var/log:/var/log:ro”
]

Then restart OpenClaw:
systemctl restart openclaw