Ollama + DeepSeek: How I Run LLMs Locally

Why I Use Ollama

I wanted to run LLMs on my own hardware without paying for API calls or sending data to the cloud. Ollama made that straightforward — install, pull a model, start chatting.

Install Ollama

Arch Linux

Update your system, then install Ollama:

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S ollama

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl enable ollama
sudo systemctl start ollama
sudo systemctl status ollama

You should see active (running).

Ubuntu

Install Ollama with the official install script:

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

Start the service:

sudo systemctl enable ollama
sudo systemctl start ollama
sudo systemctl status ollama

Available Models

Browse models at ollama.com/library.

Popular choices:

• deepseek-r1 — strong reasoning and coding help
• llama3 — general-purpose chat
• mistral — fast and lightweight
• gemma — small models for weaker hardware

Pull and Run DeepSeek

This example uses deepseek-r1. You can swap the name for any model you prefer.

Step 1: Download the model

ollama pull deepseek-r1

Step 2: Confirm it is installed

ollama list

You should see deepseek-r1 in the list.

Step 3: Start a chat session

ollama run deepseek-r1

Type a question and press Enter. Type /bye to exit.

Simple Test: Generate Python Code

Ask the model to write a short program:

echo "Write a Python program to calculate factorial using recursion." | ollama run deepseek-r1

Example output:

def factorial(n):
    if n == 0:
        return 1
    return n * factorial(n - 1)

num = int(input("Enter a number: "))
print("Factorial:", factorial(num))

Troubleshooting

Conclusion

Ollama makes it easy to run LLMs locally. Install it once, pull a model, and start chatting from your terminal — on Arch Linux or Ubuntu.