How to Run OpenClaw on Linode (Akamai)

Let me save you some time: Linode (now under the Akamai umbrella) is one of the best places to run OpenClaw. Not the cheapest. Not the flashiest. But if you care about documentation quality, a sane control panel, and a community that actually answers questions — it's hard to beat.

I've deployed OpenClaw on half a dozen cloud providers at this point. Linode consistently delivers the least friction. Here's exactly how to get it running, what it'll cost, and why this setup makes sense for developers who want an always-on OpenClaw instance without babysitting infrastructure.

Why Linode for OpenClaw?

Before we get into the terminal commands, let's address the obvious question: why not just run OpenClaw locally?

You can. Plenty of people do. But there are real reasons to put it on a VPS:

Always-on availability. Your laptop sleeps. Your Linode doesn't. If you're running OpenClaw agents that need to be reachable 24/7 — processing tasks, responding to events, handling integrations — a cloud instance is non-negotiable.

Consistent environment. No more "works on my machine." A Linode running Ubuntu 22.04 is the same whether you're in Tokyo or Toronto. Your OpenClaw build compiles identically every time.

Remote access from anywhere. SSH in from your phone, your work laptop, a library computer. Your OpenClaw instance is always exactly where you left it.

Separation of concerns. Keep your development machine clean. Let the VPS handle the heavy lifting while you iterate on configurations locally and push changes when ready.

Now, why Linode specifically over DigitalOcean, Vultr, or the hyperscalers?

Three things: documentation, predictable pricing, and the community. Linode's docs are genuinely excellent — not marketing fluff disguised as tutorials. The pricing is straightforward (no surprise bandwidth bills), and their community forums have years of accumulated Linux deployment wisdom. Since Akamai acquired them, the network backbone has only gotten better.

For OpenClaw workloads, which are compute-moderate and benefit from low-latency networking, it's a sweet spot.

The Cost Breakdown (No Surprises)

Let's talk money. Here's what actually matters for running OpenClaw on Linode:

Plan	Monthly Cost	vCPUs	RAM	Storage	Transfer	OpenClaw Fit
Nanode	$5	1 shared	1 GB	25 GB SSD	1 TB	Minimum viable. Tight on RAM during builds.
Shared 2GB	$12	1 shared	2 GB	50 GB SSD	2 TB	Recommended starting point. Compiles fine, runs smooth.
Shared 4GB	$24	2 shared	4 GB	80 GB SSD	4 TB	Comfortable for GUI streaming + mods. Room to grow.
Dedicated 4GB	$36	2 dedicated	4 GB	80 GB SSD	4 TB	Consistent performance, no noisy neighbors.

My recommendation: Start at $12/month. The Shared 2GB plan gives you enough RAM to compile OpenClaw without swap thrashing, enough storage for the build artifacts and game assets, and enough transfer that you won't think about bandwidth.

If you're running multiple OpenClaw instances or streaming a GUI session via VNC, bump to the $24 plan.

Hidden costs to know about:

Backups add ~50% of your plan cost ($6/mo on the $12 plan). Worth it.
Block storage is $0.10/GB/month if you need extra disk.
Linode bills hourly, prorated. Spin up a $24 instance for testing, destroy it after 3 hours, pay pennies.

The new account bonus: Linode typically offers $100 in free credits for 60 days. That's enough to run the $12 plan for over 8 months of testing. Use it.

Full Setup: OpenClaw on Linode in 20 Minutes

No fluff. Here's every step from zero to running OpenClaw.

Step 1: Create Your Linode Account

Go to linode.com. Sign up with email, add a payment method (credit card or PayPal), verify your account. Takes 3 minutes.

Step 2: Deploy Your Instance

From the Linode dashboard:

Click Create Linode
Image: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Region: Pick the closest to you. Newark (US East), Fremont (US West), London, Frankfurt, Singapore — they have about 10 global regions. Closer = less latency.
Plan: Shared CPU → Linode 2GB ($12/mo)
Label: openclaw-prod (or whatever makes sense)
Root Password: Set something strong, or better yet —
SSH Key: Paste your public key. If you don't have one: ssh-keygen -t ed25519 on your local machine, then paste the contents of ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub.
Click Create Linode

Your instance will be running in about 60 seconds. Grab the IP address from the dashboard.

Step 3: Initial Server Setup

SSH in:

ssh root@YOUR_LINODE_IP

First things first — update everything:

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Create a non-root user (good practice):

adduser openclaw
usermod -aG sudo openclaw

Set up basic firewall:

ufw allow OpenSSH
ufw enable

Reboot to pick up any kernel updates:

reboot

SSH back in (give it 30 seconds):

ssh openclaw@YOUR_LINODE_IP

Step 4: Install OpenClaw Dependencies

OpenClaw is built with C++ and SDL2, so we need the full build toolchain plus media libraries. This single command gets everything:

sudo apt install -y \
  build-essential \
  cmake \
  git \
  libsdl2-dev \
  libsdl2-mixer-dev \
  libpng-dev \
  libvorbis-dev \
  libglew-dev \
  libphysfs-dev \
  libcurl4-openssl-dev \
  libopenal-dev \
  libmpg123-dev

This pulls in about 300MB of packages. On Linode's network, expect it to finish in under a minute.

Step 5: Clone and Build OpenClaw

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/pjasicern/OpenClaw.git
cd OpenClaw
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j$(nproc)

On the 2GB plan, make -j$(nproc) will use the single vCPU. Compilation takes about 5–10 minutes. If you went with the 4GB plan (2 vCPUs), it'll be roughly half that.

If you run into memory issues during compilation (rare on 2GB, but possible with parallel jobs):

# Create a 1GB swap file as insurance
sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
echo '/swapfile none swap sw 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

Then retry the build.

After compilation succeeds, optionally install system-wide:

sudo make install

Step 6: Set Up Game Assets

OpenClaw needs the original Claw game data (WAD files) to run. These are approximately 50MB. Create the data directory:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/openclaw

Transfer your CLAW.WAD file to the server. From your local machine:

scp /path/to/CLAW.WAD openclaw@YOUR_LINODE_IP:~/.local/share/openclaw/

The WAD file contains all the original game assets — levels, sprites, sounds. OpenClaw reads these at runtime.

Step 7: Run OpenClaw

If you're testing headlessly or just validating the build:

cd ~/OpenClaw/build
./openclaw

For actual graphical interaction, you'll need a way to see the display. Here are your options, ranked by practicality:

Option A: X11 Forwarding (Simplest, Most Lag)

# From your local machine:
ssh -X openclaw@YOUR_LINODE_IP
cd ~/OpenClaw/build
./openclaw

Works if you have an X server locally (Linux native, XQuartz on Mac, VcXsrv on Windows). Expect noticeable input lag — fine for testing, not great for actual play.

Option B: VNC (Best Balance)

sudo apt install -y tigervnc-standalone-server xfce4 xfce4-goodies dbus-x11
vncpasswd  # Set a VNC password
vncserver :1 -geometry 1280x720 -depth 24

Open firewall for VNC:

sudo ufw allow 5901

Connect from any VNC client (RealVNC, TigerVNC viewer) to YOUR_LINODE_IP:5901. You'll get a full desktop environment. Launch OpenClaw from the terminal inside VNC.

Option C: NoMachine (Best Performance)

Download the NoMachine .deb package from their site, transfer it to your Linode, install with dpkg -i. NoMachine uses NX protocol which is significantly better than VNC for anything interactive. Free for personal use.

Option D: Screen/Tmux for Headless Agents

If you're running OpenClaw in agent mode — processing tasks, running AI workloads, no GUI needed:

sudo apt install -y tmux
tmux new -s openclaw
cd ~/OpenClaw/build
./openclaw --headless  # or relevant CLI flags
# Ctrl+B, D to detach

Reconnect anytime with tmux attach -t openclaw.

Step 8: Connect Telegram Notifications

Want to know when your OpenClaw instance does something interesting? Set up a Telegram bot for notifications:

# Install Python and requests
sudo apt install -y python3-pip
pip3 install python-telegram-bot requests

Create a quick notification script at ~/notify.py:

import requests
import sys

BOT_TOKEN = "YOUR_TELEGRAM_BOT_TOKEN"
CHAT_ID = "YOUR_CHAT_ID"

def send(message):
    url = f"https://api.telegram.org/bot{BOT_TOKEN}/sendMessage"
    requests.post(url, data={"chat_id": CHAT_ID, "text": message})

if __name__ == "__main__":
    send(sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "OpenClaw ping")

Test it:

python3 ~/notify.py "OpenClaw is live on Linode 🐾"

Hook this into your OpenClaw workflows, cron jobs, or systemd service triggers. Now you get a Telegram ping whenever something happens.

Step 9: Make It Always-On with Systemd

Create a service file:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/openclaw.service

[Unit]
Description=OpenClaw Instance
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=openclaw
WorkingDirectory=/home/openclaw/OpenClaw/build
ExecStart=/home/openclaw/OpenClaw/build/openclaw
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable openclaw
sudo systemctl start openclaw

Check status:

sudo systemctl status openclaw

Your OpenClaw instance now survives reboots, restarts automatically on crashes, and runs 24/7. That's the whole point of putting it on a Linode.

Performance Tuning Tips

A few things I've learned from running OpenClaw on Linode that aren't in the README:

1. Use the Atlanta or Newark regions if you're in the US. Lowest latency to major internet exchanges. Matters for remote play.

2. Enable Longview monitoring. It's Linode's free monitoring agent. Install it from the dashboard — gives you CPU, RAM, disk, and network graphs without setting up Prometheus or Grafana.

curl -s https://lv.linode.com/YOUR_LONGVIEW_KEY | sudo bash

3. Tune swap aggressiveness on the 2GB plan.

echo 'vm.swappiness=10' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf
sudo sysctl -p

This keeps OpenClaw in RAM instead of swapping to disk unless absolutely necessary.

4. Snapshot before major changes. Linode's snapshot feature is instant. Before you try a new OpenClaw build or mod, snapshot your instance. Roll back in seconds if something breaks.

What About Scaling?

One of the underrated Linode features: you can resize your instance with a few clicks. Start at $12/month. If you need more power for heavier OpenClaw workloads — more agents, bigger datasets, GPU-accelerated features — bump to the next tier without reprovisioning.

You can also clone your Linode to spin up identical OpenClaw instances across regions. Running agents in US-East and EU-West? Clone, change region, done. Each clone is its own billable instance, but the setup time drops to zero.

Relevant Claw Mart Listings

If you're building out your OpenClaw deployment, check these out on Claw Mart:

OpenClaw Starter Configs — Pre-tuned configuration files for common VPS setups
OpenClaw Mod Packs — Community-built mods tested on cloud instances
OpenClaw Monitoring Dashboards — Grafana templates for tracking your instance
VNC Optimization Scripts — Reduce latency for remote graphical sessions

Browse the full catalog at Claw Mart for tools that integrate directly with your OpenClaw deployment.

The Bottom Line

Here's your total investment to get OpenClaw running on Linode:

Time: 20 minutes from account creation to running instance
Cost: $12/month (less with the $100 free credit)
Maintenance: Near zero with systemd and auto-restarts

Linode isn't trying to be AWS. It's not selling you 47 services you don't need. It gives you a Linux box with good performance, good docs, and predictable pricing. For OpenClaw, that's exactly what you want.

Spin it up, build OpenClaw, connect your Telegram notifications, and move on to the actual interesting work: building agents, testing mods, and shipping projects.

Next steps:

Create your Linode account and claim the free credit
Follow the setup above — copy-paste the commands, don't overthink it
Browse Claw Mart for OpenClaw configs and community tools
Join the OpenClaw community channels to share your deployment

Stop reading deployment guides. Go deploy.

How to Run OpenClaw on Linode (Akamai) — Developer Favorite