Ollama-installation-guide

how to succesfully download ollama on your linux device

Linux

Install

To install Ollama, run the following command:

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.

Download and extract the package:

curl -LO https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64.tgz
sudo tar -C /usr -xzf ollama-linux-amd64.tgz

Start Ollama:

ollama serve

In another terminal, verify that Ollama is running:

ollama -v

AMD GPU install

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

curl -L https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64-rocm.tgz -o ollama-linux-amd64-rocm.tgz
sudo tar -C /usr -xzf ollama-linux-amd64-rocm.tgz

ARM64 install

Download and extract the ARM64-specific package:

curl -L https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-arm64.tgz -o ollama-linux-arm64.tgz
sudo tar -C /usr -xzf ollama-linux-arm64.tgz

Adding Ollama as a startup service (recommended)

Create a user and group for Ollama:

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:

[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:

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:

nvidia-smi

Install AMD ROCm drivers (optional)

Download and Install ROCm v6.

Start Ollama

Start Ollama and verify it is running:

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 AMD for best support of your Radeon GPU.

Customizing

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

sudo systemctl edit ollama

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

[Service]
Environment="OLLAMA_DEBUG=1"

Updating

Update Ollama by running the install script again:

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

Or by re-downloading Ollama:

curl -L https://ollama.com/download/ollama-linux-amd64.tgz -o ollama-linux-amd64.tgz
sudo tar -C /usr -xzf ollama-linux-amd64.tgz

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:

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:

journalctl -e -u ollama

Uninstall

Remove the ollama service:

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

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

sudo rm $(which ollama)

Remove the downloaded models and Ollama service user and group:

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

Remove installed libraries:

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/ollama

Using Wget for installation

wget -qO- https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

Breakdown of the command:

wget -qO-
    -q → Quiet mode (suppresses output)
    -O- → Outputs the downloaded script to stdout (so it can be piped to sh)

https://ollama.com/install.sh → The installation script URL

| sh → Pipes the script to sh for execution

Alternative Manual Installation Steps (if you prefer not to pipe directly to sh):

Download the script first:

wget https://ollama.com/install.sh -O ollama-install.sh

Review it for safety (optional but recommended):

cat ollama-install.sh  # or use a text editor

Make it executable and run:

chmod +x ollama-install.sh

    sudo ./ollama-install.sh

Post-Installation Steps:

Verify Ollama is running:

systemctl status ollama

Pull a model (e.g., Llama 3):

ollama pull llama3

Run a model:

    ollama run llama3

Notes:

If wget is not installed:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install wget -y