Goal: Install and run Gemma 4 locally on your Debian machine with NVIDIA GPU.
What we tried first:
- Spent a long time trying to get Ollama working with Gemma 4.
- Ran into repeated problems: version mismatch (0.19.0 vs 0.20.x), 412 errors, stubborn systemd service, missing zstd, binary path issues, etc.
- Despite many cleanup and reinstall attempts, Ollama kept installing the old stable version and refused to update properly.
What finally worked:
- Switched to LM Studio (the graphical app).
- You successfully:
- Downloaded the LM Studio AppImage (LM-Studio-0.4.9-1-x64.AppImage)
- Launched it
- Searched for Gemma 4
- Downloaded gemma-4-E2B-it-GGUF (the small ~4.4 GB Q4 version)
- Loaded the model
- Sent your first message and got a response: “Hello! I am Gemma 4, a Large Language Model developed by Google DeepMind.”
Current Status:
- You are successfully running Gemma 4 E2B (the smallest variant of Gemma 4).
- It is working in LM Studio with vision support (can accept images).
- You decided to stay with this model for now while you learn how to use it.
Quick Recap of Where We Are:
- LM Studio is installed and launching fine.
- Gemma 4 E2B model is downloaded and loaded.
- You can now chat with it normally.