Upgrade ollama from 0.9.3 (IPEX-LLM) to 0.15.6 (official) with Vulkan Intel GPU

Replace the IPEX-LLM portable zip (bundling a patched ollama 0.9.3 with SYCL)
with the official ollama 0.15.6 release using the Vulkan backend for Intel GPU
acceleration. The official ollama project does not ship a SYCL backend; Vulkan
is their supported path for Intel GPUs.

- Use official ollama binary with Vulkan runner (OLLAMA_VULKAN=1)
- Strip CUDA/MLX runners from image to save space
- Add mesa-vulkan-drivers for Intel ANV Vulkan ICD
- Remove all IPEX-LLM env vars and wrapper scripts
- Simplify entrypoint to /usr/bin/ollama serve directly
- Clean up docker-compose.yml: remove IPEX build args and env vars

Tested: Intel Arc Graphics (MTL) detected, 17/17 layers offloaded to Vulkan0
Co-authored-by: Cursor <cursoragent@cursor.com>

Dockerfile

@@ -2,16 +2,18 @@ FROM ubuntu:24.04
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive \
     TZ=America/Los_Angeles
 
-# Base packages
+# Base packages + Intel Vulkan ICD (ANV driver)
 RUN apt-get update && \
     apt-get install --no-install-recommends -q -y \
-      software-properties-common \
       ca-certificates \
       wget \
+      zstd \
+      mesa-vulkan-drivers \
       ocl-icd-libopencl1 && \
     rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 # Intel GPU runtimes (release 26.05.37020.3)
+# Provides level-zero, IGC, compute-runtime for Intel GPU kernel support
 RUN mkdir -p /tmp/gpu && cd /tmp/gpu && \
     wget https://github.com/oneapi-src/level-zero/releases/download/v1.28.0/level-zero_1.28.0+u24.04_amd64.deb && \
     wget https://github.com/intel/intel-graphics-compiler/releases/download/v2.28.4/intel-igc-core-2_2.28.4+20760_amd64.deb && \
@@ -23,81 +25,44 @@ RUN mkdir -p /tmp/gpu && cd /tmp/gpu && \
     wget https://github.com/intel/compute-runtime/releases/download/26.05.37020.3/libze-intel-gpu1_26.05.37020.3-0_amd64.deb && \
     dpkg -i *.deb *.ddeb && rm -rf /tmp/gpu
 
-# Install IPEX-LLM Portable Zip (ollama bundle v2.3.0-nightly)
+# Install official ollama (Vulkan runner provides Intel GPU acceleration)
-RUN cd / && \
+ARG OLLAMA_VERSION=0.15.6
-    wget https://github.com/ipex-llm/ipex-llm/releases/download/v2.3.0-nightly/ollama-ipex-llm-2.3.0b20250725-ubuntu.tgz && \
+RUN wget -qO- "https://github.com/ollama/ollama/releases/download/v${OLLAMA_VERSION}/ollama-linux-amd64.tar.zst" | \
-    tar xvf ollama-ipex-llm-2.3.0b20250725-ubuntu.tgz --strip-components=1 -C / && \
+    zstd -d | tar -xf - -C /usr && \
-    rm ollama-ipex-llm-2.3.0b20250725-ubuntu.tgz
+    # Remove CUDA and MLX runners — we only need CPU + Vulkan
+    rm -rf /usr/lib/ollama/cuda_* /usr/lib/ollama/mlx_*
 
-# Clean up any temporary files
+# Clean up
 RUN apt-get clean && \
-    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/* \
+    rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* /tmp/* /var/tmp/* && \
-    && find /var/log -type f -exec rm -f {} \; \
+    apt-get autoremove -y --purge 2>/dev/null; \
-    && rm -rf /var/log/*-old \
+    apt-get autoclean -y 2>/dev/null; true
-    && rm -rf /var/log/apt/* \
-    && rm -rf /var/log/dpkg.log* \
-    && rm -rf /var/log/alternatives.log \
-    && rm -rf /var/log/installer/* \
-    && rm -rf /var/log/unattended-upgrades/* \
-    && apt autoremove -y --purge \
-    && apt-get autoclean -y \
-    && rm -rf /tmp/* /var/tmp/*
-
-# Best practices
-
-# Save model for faster loading
-ENV OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE=6h
-
-# Keep models loaded in memory
-ENV OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=24h
-
-# Load models in parallel
-ENV OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=1
-ENV OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS=1
-
-# Set bigger queue and VRAM for better performance
-ENV OLLAMA_MAX_QUEUE=512
-ENV OLLAMA_MAX_VRAM=0
 
 # Serve ollama on all interfaces
 ENV OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0:11434
 
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU
+# Keep models loaded in memory
+ENV OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=24h
+ENV OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE=6h
+
+# Concurrency and resource limits
+ENV OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=1
+ENV OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS=1
+ENV OLLAMA_MAX_QUEUE=512
+ENV OLLAMA_MAX_VRAM=0
+
+# Enable Vulkan backend for Intel GPU acceleration
+ENV OLLAMA_VULKAN=1
+
+# Use all GPU layers
 ENV OLLAMA_NUM_GPU=999
 
-
+# Intel GPU tuning
-## # Available low_bit format including sym_int4, sym_int8, fp16 etc.
-ENV USE_XETLA=OFF
 ENV ZES_ENABLE_SYSMAN=1
 
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU
+# For Intel Core Ultra Processors (Series 1), code name Meteor Lake
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU with IPEX-LLM
-ENV OLLAMA_USE_IPEX=1
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU with IPEX-LLM and SYCL
-ENV OLLAMA_USE_IPEX_SYCL=1
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU with IPEX-LLM and SYCL and Level Zero
-ENV OLLAMA_USE_IPEX_SYCL_ZE=1
-# Set ollama to use the Intel GPU with IPEX-LLM and SYCL and Level Zero and XETLA
-ENV OLLAMA_USE_IPEX_SYCL_ZE_XETLA=1
-
-# # Available low_bit format including sym_int4, sym_int8, fp16 etc.
-ENV USE_XETLA=OFF
-ENV ZES_ENABLE_SYSMAN=1
-
-# Add some intel specific adjustments
-#  https://github.com/intel/ipex-llm/blob/main/docs/mddocs/Quickstart/fastchat_quickstart.md
-
-ENV SYCL_PI_LEVEL_ZERO_USE_IMMEDIATE_COMMANDLISTS=1
-ENV ENABLE_SDP_FUSION=1
-
-# [optional] under most circumstances, the following environment variable may improve performance,
-# but sometimes this may also cause performance degradation
-ENV SYCL_CACHE_PERSISTENT=1
-
-# For Intel Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 2) with processor number 2xxK or 2xxH (code name Arrow Lake):
-#- IPEX_LLM_NPU_ARL=1
-
-# For Intel Core™ Ultra Processors (Series 1) with processor number 1xxH (code name Meteor Lake):
 ENV IPEX_LLM_NPU_MTL=1
 
-ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/bash", "/start-ollama.sh"]
+EXPOSE 11434
+ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/ollama"]
+CMD ["serve"]

docker-compose.yml

@@ -4,9 +4,7 @@ services:
       context: .
       dockerfile: Dockerfile
       args:
-        IPEXLLM_RELEASE_REPO: ipex-llm/ipex-llm
+        OLLAMA_VERSION: "0.15.6"
-        IPEXLLM_RELEASE_VERSON: v2.2.0
-        IPEXLLM_PORTABLE_ZIP_FILENAME: ollama-ipex-llm-2.2.0-ubuntu.tgz
     container_name: ollama-intel-gpu
     restart: unless-stopped
     devices:
@@ -15,27 +13,19 @@ services:
     volumes:
       - /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix
       - ollama-intel-gpu:/root/.ollama
-      - ./start-ollama.sh:/start-ollama.sh:ro
     shm_size: "16G"
     environment:
-      - ONEAPI_DEVICE_SELECTOR=level_zero:0
-      #- SYCL_PI_LEVEL_ZERO_USE_IMMEDIATE_COMMANDLISTS=1
-      #- SYCL_CACHE_PERSISTENT=1
-      - IPEX_LLM_NUM_CTX=16384
-      - LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/intel/oneapi/compiler/2024.2/lib
       - DISPLAY=${DISPLAY}
-      - OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE="6h"
       - OLLAMA_HOST=0.0.0.0
+      - OLLAMA_VULKAN=1
+      - OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE=6h
       - OLLAMA_KEEP_ALIVE=24h
       - OLLAMA_MAX_LOADED_MODELS=1
       - OLLAMA_MAX_QUEUE=512
       - OLLAMA_MAX_VRAM=0
+      - OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=1
       #- OLLAMA_NOHISTORY=false
       #- OLLAMA_NOPRUNE=false
-      - OLLAMA_NUM_PARALLEL=1
-      #- IPEXLLM_RELEASE_REPO=ipex-llm/ipex-llm
-      #- IPEXLLM_RELEASE_VERSON=v2.2.0
-      #- IPEXLLM_PORTABLE_ZIP_FILENAME=ollama-ipex-llm-2.2.0-ubuntu.tgz
     ports:
       - 11434:11434
 
@@ -51,7 +41,7 @@ services:
       - ${OLLAMA_WEBUI_PORT-3000}:8080
     environment:
       - OLLAMA_BASE_URL=http://ollama-intel-gpu:11434
-      - OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE="6h"
+      - OLLAMA_DEFAULT_KEEPALIVE=6h
       #- OPENAI_API_BASE_URL=
       #- OPENAI_API_KEY=
       #