Linux - Ollama — ContextQMD

Install

To install Ollama, run the following command:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Manual install

<Note> If you are upgrading from a prior version, you should remove the old libraries with `sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/ollama` first. </Note>

Download and extract the package:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64.tar.zst \
    | sudo tar x -C /usr

Start Ollama:

shell

ollama serve

In another terminal, verify that Ollama is running:

shell

ollama -v

AMD GPU install

If you have an AMD GPU, also download and extract the additional ROCm package:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64-rocm.tar.zst \
    | sudo tar x -C /usr

ARM64 install

Download and extract the ARM64-specific package:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-arm64.tar.zst \
    | sudo tar x -C /usr

Adding Ollama as a startup service (recommended)

Create a user and group for Ollama:

shell

sudo useradd -r -s /bin/false -U -m -d /usr/share/ollama ollama
sudo usermod -a -G ollama $(whoami)

Create a service file in /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service:

ini

[Unit]
Description=Ollama Service
After=network-online.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ollama serve
User=ollama
Group=ollama
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
Environment="PATH=$PATH"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then start the service:

shell

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable ollama

Install CUDA drivers (optional)

Download and install CUDA.

Verify that the drivers are installed by running the following command, which should print details about your GPU:

shell

nvidia-smi

Install AMD ROCm drivers (optional)

Download and Install ROCm v7.

Start Ollama

Start Ollama and verify it is running:

shell

sudo systemctl start ollama
sudo systemctl status ollama

<Note> While AMD has contributed the `amdgpu` driver upstream to the official linux kernel source, the version is older and may not support all ROCm features. We recommend you install the latest driver from https://www.amd.com/en/support/linux-drivers for best support of your Radeon GPU. </Note>

Customizing

To customize the installation of Ollama, you can edit the systemd service file or the environment variables by running:

shell

sudo systemctl edit ollama

Alternatively, create an override file manually in /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service.d/override.conf:

ini

[Service]
Environment="OLLAMA_DEBUG=1"

Updating

Update Ollama by running the install script again:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Or by re-downloading Ollama:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64.tar.zst \
    | sudo tar x -C /usr

Installing specific versions

Use OLLAMA_VERSION environment variable with the install script to install a specific version of Ollama, including pre-releases. You can find the version numbers in the releases page.

For example:

shell

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | OLLAMA_VERSION=0.5.7 sh

Viewing logs

To view logs of Ollama running as a startup service, run:

shell

journalctl -e -u ollama

Uninstall

Remove the ollama service:

shell

sudo systemctl stop ollama
sudo systemctl disable ollama
sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service

Remove ollama libraries from your lib directory (either /usr/local/lib, /usr/lib, or /lib):

shell

sudo rm -r $(which ollama | tr 'bin' 'lib')

Remove the ollama binary from your bin directory (either /usr/local/bin, /usr/bin, or /bin):

shell

sudo rm $(which ollama)

Remove the downloaded models and Ollama service user and group:

shell

sudo userdel ollama
sudo groupdel ollama
sudo rm -r /usr/share/ollama