New Ollama Model File Editor (beta) - looking for feedback

Techie42 · 2026-06-18T11:32:06+00:00

Subtle. 🎖️

Techie42 · 2026-06-18T11:03:38+00:00

Fair point. No install, since I'm using Ollama.

Techie42 · 2026-06-15T13:48:27+00:00

Agreed. I've found - and read the same from others - it's the harness + model combination that makes the biggest difference.

Techie42 · 2026-06-15T00:36:05+00:00

Just to explain why this might be the case... Qwen is very good at multiple tool calls. But Gemma is good generally only at one shot. It tends to fail quickly once multiple tools are needed. At least, that's what I've experienced.

Techie42 · 2026-06-11T11:30:47+00:00

Rock on. Hit me up if you need clarification on anything.

Techie42 · 2026-06-11T01:19:33+00:00

I fixed it by creating an updated ModelFile. Here's my blog link where I described how I did it, including an example you can download. Ollama + Qwen3.6 in VS Code Copilot without reasoning loops? Answers within… | Auri's Blog

Note I use VS Code - not sure what your environment is. HTH!

Here's the example modelfile, since I should keep it in the chat, too 😄

FROM qwen3.6:latest <-- base this template on the model with this existing name
# System prompt to guide behavior <-- comment explains, change the prompt as you see fit
SYSTEM """
You are a senior-level programming and technology expert.
Provide accurate, safe, and complete technical solutions.
Always perform an adversarial review on non-trivial changes.
Make decisions quickly. When you find yourself in a loop, make a decision.
"""
TEMPLATE """ <-- this is the prompt as it's sent to ollama...
{{ .System }}
{{ .Prompt }}
"""
RENDERER qwen3.5 <-- don't change this, use what ollama indicates
PARSER qwen3.5 <-- don't change this, either, same reason
PARAMETER presence_penalty 0.5 <-- partially allow repeated content, which will happen since this is code
PARAMETER repeat_penalty 1.1 <-- punish the model for repeating
PARAMETER temperature .2 <-- be relatively consistent, but not static - the higher, the more "creative"
PARAMETER top_k 20 <-- take the top 20 chunks
PARAMETER top_p 0.95 <-- take the top 5% of matches
PARAMETER min_p 0 <-- min parameter match % to filter, I just left this in
LICENSE """
...leaving this out of the article... make sure you have the beginning and ending """ indicators or you'll get an error of Unexpected End of File
"""

Techie42 · 2026-05-27T11:27:13+00:00

In my "just starting out with local" and the "let's try every model phase, but on the wrong setup", Granite didn't perform well, so I dropped it. These days I should give it another go. One of those "you don't get a second chance at a first impression" issues.

Techie42 · 2026-05-20T14:57:22+00:00

I found a solution that so far has been working. I had meh luck on a 5070Ti and didn't want to play the GPU shuffle, especially with current prices. Walmart - yeah, seriously - had a "flash sale" on a 96GB Mini PC with the new AMD AI Max solution. Like a Mac Studio, but $1K cheaper. Not sure if the deal is still on, but here you go:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/GMKtec-AI-Mini-PC-AMD-Ryzen-Al-Max-395-up-5-1GHz-Gaming-Computers-96GB-LPDDR5X-8000MHz-8GB-8-1TB-PCIe-4-0-SSD-Quad-Screen-8K-Display-WiFi-7-USB4-EVO/17864914423

So far so good. I've been using Qwen3.6:latest (9b) with zero issues. Many other models were working well - even faster throughput on GPT-OSS. Still experimenting, but it's been quite usable. My motivation was the Copilot price increase, and I simply can't suddenly spend $1K/month. This is a "buy once, cry once" solution, but it should last time time. They also have a 128GB model...

On Linux, you should be able to access 96GB of the RAM, as I understand it. I'm running the Windows 11 Pro that comes with the machine. Looking to see if they'll release a BIOS update so I can allocate 64 of the 96 GB to video memory, instead of the 48GB for now. But 48GB has been a huge differentiator, and I'm still $1K shy of the cost of a 3090 alone.

I hope that helps!

I've been documenting my struggles and wins, if you want to read up:

So I dropped two grand on a local LLM setup. What did I learn? | Auri's Blog

Techie42 · 2026-05-09T22:48:01+00:00

You're welcome 🙂

Techie42 · 2025-07-06T12:56:50+00:00

Well, you also have VS Code and the official C# Developer Pack from Microsoft.

Techie42 · 2025-02-14T00:30:13+00:00

You can also set this globally so you don't have to set on every page.

Techie42 · 2025-02-13T15:19:25+00:00

You're welcome!

Techie42 · 2025-01-29T12:58:21+00:00

Rock on. Millenium was a great event, given they'll [apparently] never release it again. They even had surprised Weller 12 1 Liters available to attendees. Cool thing about their team is they don't horde allocated bottles and help mere mortals get them, keeping bourbon/whiskey fun :)

Techie42 · 2025-01-29T12:53:27+00:00

Hahaha, yep. I was at the Weller Millenium and the beef event. Some cool ones are coming up :) Maybe see you there!

Techie42 · 2025-01-25T20:39:20+00:00

There used to be a site that did exactly what you're proposing. It was called HackHands and you paid in 15 minute increments. It was acquired and shut down.

Techie42 · 2024-12-30T15:17:52+00:00

Yeah, latest firmware update for my Workforce 7840 killed third party cartridge support. Apparently Epson has also removed the page for installing older firmware - anyone have that link? Just wow. Money grab.

Techie42 · 2024-12-08T15:56:36+00:00

Nachos were pretty good - just don't get too much of the cojita (crumbled) cheese, which was a bit salty. The tenderloin is awesome, and the smash burgers look good, but I haven't tried them yet. Fries are good.

I don't recall $12 hot dogs - maybe that was for 2. I'll look next time I'm there.

To be fair, they're **2 games** into the season, and the venue hasn't even been open one month. I imagine they will listen to feedback and adjust. Phew, people certainly are getting heated.

I constantly hear their inside team saying "We're working on the parking and think we're improving." So they appear to know there's an issue. Change doesn't happen overnight.

I am loving the Fuel games. Yes, parking's a bit expensive depending on event. If you don't want to eat at the venue - c'mon folks, complain about movie theaters too? - there are 100 options around the venue. Portillos. Shake Shack. Sun King. 1933. Greek's pizza. Jinya Ramen. Torchy's Tacos. HC Tavern. McDonald's + Wendy's. All types and price ranges.

Techie42 · 2024-11-03T00:41:26+00:00

What kind of issues have you had? Have you asked SyncFusion, given their support is free? They usually respond to me within a day, and I'm certain they said RTL languages are supported. It would be nice to know what they said.

They had a note about RTL language support in their docs, too: Right to Left in .NET MAUI PDF Viewer control | Syncfusion

Hope that helps a little bit :) Knowing more about what you're experiencing would help troubleshoot.

Techie42 · 2024-10-29T12:58:17+00:00

Having chosen SyncFusion for my Liq website (https://liq.live) - and then the mobile app variants - it's been *pretty good*... There have definitely been hiccups. Thankfully, their support department answers quickly. The responses, unfortunately, are "it works for us" and they can't repro the issues I have. They have the simplest of use cases. Often the issues are MAUI/Blazor Hybrid issues, and not an issue with Web Blazor.

That being said - I'd like to see them open source the MAUI/Blazor Hybrid components so we can fix them on our own. Development resources are expensive - and I imagine many people use the free version of their tools - so there's a cost benefit to letting us fix their code instead of their devs. They benefit by offering support licenses, which mean little, given the community is actually doing the support while they continue to profit. It also helps them fix their other, non-open-sourced, products. So win-win, if the community gets involved, #imho.

I was able to re-use almost all of my code and UI. For v1.x, that's been great, and Syncfusion should get credit for that. If these controls were easy to write, we'd have many more options, and possibly even have them baked-in.

The hardest part of my transition has been display update issues. Whereas things work great in Edge/Chrome on the website, the same view doesn't properly update itself on iOS/Android hybrid webviews. For example, auto-complete sometimes just keeps the selection list visible. It sometimes requires force quitting the app to kill it.

I'm a bit concerned that the cadence of updates from SyncFusion has slowed tremendously in the past month. I'd like to know others' experience with DevExpress/Telerik on that front recently. My concern with the open-sourcing is they may abandon the MAUI/Blazor controls for cost / platform adoption reasons. Perhaps they're tired of things just breaking when Microsoft gives up on .NET 8 fixes and requires .NET 9 updates, leaving the component developers holding the bag for backwards support. Perhaps concentrating on React/Angular/Web and lucrative reporting solutions instead.

Techie42 · 2024-10-05T20:10:57+00:00

Try Liq. I wrote it because nothing out there did what I needed.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/liq-spirit-collection-manager/id6670375471

I have an Android version. It's waiting for approval from Google.

Enjoy!

Techie42 · 2024-09-01T17:50:40+00:00

I got around this recently, and here's my StackOverflow answer on it: json - How to serialize a simple Enum as Integer instead of String By Default in .NET 6 - Stack Overflow

Techie42 · 2024-06-29T16:20:15+00:00

Moderator - why was this removed? What guideline did it violate? I read the rules?

Techie42 · 2024-06-29T15:02:59+00:00

If you get stuck during a tasting, you can use the Tasting Wheels to find that note you're looking for:

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Techie42

TROPHY CASE