diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index cf8685e..42a009f 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -127,6 +127,34 @@ jobs:
           set: |
             dev.cache-from=type=gha,scope=moby-dev-amd64
             dev.cache-to=type=gha,scope=moby-dev-amd64,mode=max
+      -
+        name: Check Moby daemon starts
+        working-directory: moby
+        run: |
+          docker run --rm --privileged \
+            -v "${PWD}:/usr/src/moby" \
+            -v docker-dev-cache:/root/.cache \
+            -v docker-mod-cache:/go/pkg/mod/ \
+            docker-dev bash -euo pipefail -c '
+              hack/make.sh dynbinary
+              export PATH="${PWD}/bundles/dynbinary-daemon:${PATH}"
+              log=bundles/dockerd-smoke.log
+              dockerd --debug >"$log" 2>&1 &
+              pid=$!
+              trap '\''status=$?; kill "$pid" 2>/dev/null || true; wait "$pid" || true; if [ "$status" -ne 0 ]; then cat "$log"; fi'\'' EXIT
+              for _ in $(seq 60); do
+                if docker version >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+                  break
+                fi
+                if ! kill -0 "$pid" 2>/dev/null; then
+                  echo "::error::dockerd exited during startup"
+                  exit 1
+                fi
+                sleep 1
+              done
+              docker version
+              docker info
+            '
       -
         name: Run Moby extension integration tests
         working-directory: moby