---
type: reference
title: "stock llama.cpp Qwen3.8-27B UD-Q8_K_XL (DFlash2) on Dankclaw (frank-large)"
description: "The RETIRED frank-large runbook (2026-09-21 → 2026-09-28; replaced by [[frank-large-gufo-qwen38-27b]], and the rollback target) — the stock llama.cpp prebuilt (unsloth b11030, ROCm gfx1151) serving unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:UD-Q8_K_XL (27B dense, 31.46 GiB) with the z-lab DFlash2 Q4_K_M drafter (depth 4) and q8_0 KV on the Dankclaw Strix Halo iGPU: the prebuilt runtime, the full-window/one-stream shape, the DFlash2 spec method, the Qwen-Sharp template, the payload, the client contract, and the failure modes worth knowing."
tags:
  - llm
  - llama.cpp
  - unsloth
  - dankclaw
  - frank-large
  - strix-halo
  - gfx1151
  - q8
  - dflash2
  - rocm
  - q8-kv
timestamp: 2026-09-21
---

# frank-large — stock llama.cpp Qwen3.8-27B UD-Q8_K_XL (DFlash2)

> **RETIRED 2026-09-28**, replaced by [[frank-large-gufo-qwen38-27b]] (the
> gufo engine, same weights, same port and alias); the prebuilt is intact on
> disk as the rollback target. ACTIVE from 2026-09-21, when it replaced
> [[frank-large-kairic-edge-qwen38-27b]] (Kairic Edge IU4 W4A4) and
> [[frank-large-unsloth-qwen38-flash-next]] (the Flash-Next MoE it
> preceded).

## Identity

- **Endpoint:** `frank-large` at `192.168.0.143:7770` (Dankclaw).
- **Runtime:** stock llama.cpp — the unsloth `b11030` prebuilt
  (`/home/dank/GitPackages/unsloth-llama-b11030/llama-server`), ROCm gfx1151.
  A mainline build, not a fork: it supports the `qwen3_5` architecture and the
  DFlash2 drafter (`llama_model_qwen35`, `llama_model_dflash`,
  `common_speculative_impl_draft_dflash`).
- **Service shape:** root systemd unit `scripts/frank-large.service`
  (`User=dank`), launched by `scripts/serve-frank-large.sh` with tunables from
  `scripts/frank-large.env`.

## Shape

- **Model:** `unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:UD-Q8_K_XL` — a 27B **dense** model,
  31.46 GiB GGUF (sha256-verified by `scripts/download-frank-large.sh`).
- **Context:** one stream, full 262,144 tokens (the model's native window),
  `PARALLEL_SLOTS=1`.
- **Placement:** all layers on the iGPU (`--n-gpu-layers 999`). The 27B dense
  weights (31.46 GiB) + the DFlash2 drafter (1.14 GiB) + q8_0 KV (~8.6 GiB) +
  compute buffers fit the iGPU's GTT aperture (~114 GiB).

## Spec method

DFlash2 (a block-diffusion drafter) at **depth 4**. The drafter is the z-lab
`Qwen3.8-27B-DFlash2-Q4_K_M` (1.14 GiB), loaded via `--model-draft` with
`--spec-type draft-dflash` and `--spec-draft-device ROCm0`. It has a sliding
window of 2048, so its draft KV is small (~40 MiB). Greedy verification
(`--temp 0 --top-p 1.0 --top-k 0 --min-p 0.0`) is required.

## KV

**q8_0** (`--cache-type-k q8_0 --cache-type-v q8_0`), ~8.6 GiB at 262k. The
unsloth b11030 build does **not** support fp8 KV (allowed: f32/f16/bf16/q8_0/
q4_0/q4_1/iq4_nl/q5_0/q5_1); q8_0 is the highest-precision 8-bit option.

## Template

The Qwen-Sharp v22.4.0 template is pinned via `--chat-template-file`
(`dankserver/frank-medium/qwen-sharp-v22.4.0.jinja`) with `--jinja` and
`--chat-template-kwargs '{"preserve_thinking":true}'`. Without
`--chat-template-file` the binary falls back to the built-in `peg-native`
template, which produces a ~73,600-token prompt for a ~250-token request.
`preserve_thinking` keeps prior thinking blocks across turns for multi-turn
agents. The template gates `reasoning_effort` to `{xhigh, medium, low}` — the
harness folds its levels onto that set in `models.yml` (`reasoningEffortMap`).

## Payload

`scripts/download-frank-large.sh` fetches the main GGUF and the DFlash2
drafter, each verified against its declared byte count + sha256
(`--verify-only` re-checks). The serve script refuses to start if the binary,
the main GGUF, or the drafter is missing.

## Client contract

- **Alias:** `frank-large` (the `id` at `/v1/models`).
- **Reasoning:** extracted to `reasoning_content` (`--reasoning auto`,
  `--reasoning-format deepseek`, unlimited budget).
- **Tools:** supported (`--jinja` is pinned).
- **Vision:** none — text-only (no mmproj), matching the prior frank-large.
- **Sampling:** greedy by default; a client that sends a temperature gets its
  own, and the harness applies per-model overrides from `models.yml`.

## Failure modes worth knowing

- **Model load is slow (minutes cold).** Health returns 503 while loading; do
  not kill the process. `deploy.sh` waits up to 20 minutes (`LLM_WAIT`).
- **`--ngl` (double-dash) is invalid in b11030** — use `--n-gpu-layers`
  (the serve script uses the long form).
- **The 8-bit UD-Q8_K_XL decodes ~17 t/s** vs the prior 4-bit Kairic Edge IU4
  at ~22 t/s — the ~23 % larger weight size (31.46 vs 26 GiB) explains the
  gap; it is not a regression.
- **DFlash2 draft acceptance is text-variety-dependent** (0.85 on a trivial
  one-word answer, 0.519 on a varied explanatory prompt) — do not read a
  single-request acceptance as the steady state.

## Rollback

Payload and runtime for [[frank-large-kairic-edge-qwen38-27b]] (Kairic Edge
IU4 W4A4) remain intact on disk. See [[frank-large-unsloth-qwen38-flash-next]]
for the Flash-Next predecessor it replaced on 2026-09-21.

# Citations

- unsloth prebuilts: https://huggingface.co/unsloth
- Model: https://huggingface.co/unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF
- DFlash2 drafter: https://huggingface.co/z-lab
- Serve script: `scripts/serve-frank-large.sh`; tunables: `scripts/frank-large.env`