Ok, this is just another "how-to on Google Colab" tutorial... but the purpose of this post is more like a note for my future self.

Step 1 - Install colab-xterm

First, we need to have access to a terminal within the Google Colab code cell. This way, we can install Ollama using the shell script approach.

!pip install colab-xterm  
%load_ext colabxterm

This script will install the colab-xterm package (Perhaps an awesome tool! Thanks @popcornylu, you're awesome!), which allows us to use a terminal within our Colab notebook, even on the free tier.

thanks mr. popcornylu, applauses

Step 2 - Open a terminal and install Ollama

To open a terminal, just run the following command in a new cell:

%xterm
#curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
#ollama serve & ollama pull llama3.2

Then, paste the curl and ollama commands into the terminal and wait. Once it finishes, you're done!

Step 3 - Test the environment

Create a new cell and run:

!ollama list

If everything is good, it should return the name, ID, size, and last modified date of the model, as shown in the image below.

A screenshot from Google Colab showing the result of ollama list

At this point, you should have a running Ollama server with the Llama3.2:latest model (with 3B parameters) ready to be used.

Step 4 - Clear

Once your session is over, you might want to remove Ollama models to free up space, so create a new cell and run:

!rm -rf /usr/local/bin/ollama

And it's done!

A looney tunes gif with the

PS: A note from the past: you're welcome, future Gabriel! :)