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ADR 0113 — Unchosen install profiles try the GPU

  • Status: Accepted
  • Date: 2026-10-29
  • Amends:
    • ADR 0049 — a stored profile that nobody chose no longer pins the CPU build
  • Related: ADR 0012 (Windows silent installs keep their CPU default), ADR 0086

Context

Section titled “Context”

A Linux machine with an RTX 5070 Ti and a working Vulkan driver embedded on the CPU, and imprint doctor reported “llama.cpp found no GPU it can use”. The real cause was elsewhere:

  • install.sh piped from curl has no terminal, so it chose cpu without asking and passed --profile cpu.
  • Pressing Enter at its prompt also chose cpu, although the prompt shows gpu as the default.
  • data/profile.json recorded cpu, and every later imprint setup and imprint update installed the CPU build again.

On the same machine, the Vulkan wheel from llm-gpu.lock.txt, installed in a scratch venv, found the GPU (ggml_vulkan: 0 = NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti, offload True).

Decision

Section titled “Decision”
  • profile.json gains chosen, set when the profile came from --profile, IMPRINT_PROFILE or imprint profile set.
  • Setup keeps a stored profile only when it is marked chosen. Any other stored value, including every profile.json written before this field existed, resolves to auto: setup installs the GPU build and keeps it when llama.cpp finds a GPU. When that replaces a stored cpu, setup says so and names imprint profile set cpu.
  • install.sh passes a profile only when the user typed one or answered its prompt. It prompts only on a fresh interactive install, and Enter picks gpu, as the prompt says.
  • imprint doctor and Settings say that the cpu install profile installed the CPU build, rather than that no GPU was found.

Rejected alternatives

Section titled “Rejected alternatives”
  • Change only install.sh. Every existing install would keep its recorded cpu until the user found imprint profile set; the owner asked for setup and bootstrap to fix it themselves.
  • Treat a stored cpu as a choice unless it matches a known installer default. profile.json never recorded where its value came from, so a default cannot be told apart from a choice.

Consequences

Section titled “Consequences”
  • An existing installation that recorded cpu, chosen or not, switches to auto on its next imprint setup or imprint update. Where llama.cpp finds no GPU, auto installs the CPU build as before. A user who had deliberately picked the CPU on a GPU machine gets the GPU build once and has to run imprint profile set cpu.
  • Windows silent installs still pass -Profile cpu on a first install (ADR 0012). That is an explicit value, so it stays CPU.

Invalidation conditions

Section titled “Invalidation conditions”
  • If users report losing a deliberate CPU choice after an update, then the migration needs to ask before switching.
  • If the GPU build becomes the default for every profile, or the profiles are removed, then chosen is obsolete.

Validation

Section titled “Validation”
  • go test ./cmd/, including TestResolveInstallProfile: fresh install, stored default, stored choice, flag, environment, unknown value.
  • tests/test_llama_runtime.py: cpu_profile.
  • imprint doctor on the machine above reports CPU: the cpu install profile installed llama.cpp's CPU build.
  • bash -n install.sh, including the empty-arguments expansion under set -u.
  • Not executed: a full imprint setup that switches an installed CPU build to the GPU build.