diff --git a/docs/troubleshooting.md b/docs/troubleshooting.md
index 589061a8..0a89b87f 100644
--- a/docs/troubleshooting.md
+++ b/docs/troubleshooting.md
@@ -91,6 +91,17 @@ If none of those resolve the problem, gather additional information and file an
 - Check dmesg for any errors `sudo dmesg | grep -i nvrm` and `sudo dmesg | grep -i nvidia`
 
 
+## AMD GPU Discovery
+
+On linux, AMD GPU access typically requires `video` and/or `render` group membership to access the `/dev/kfd` device.  If permissions are not set up correctly, Ollama will detect this and report an error in the server log.
+
+When running in a container, in some Linux distributions and container runtimes, the ollama process may be unable to access the GPU.  Use `ls -ld /dev/kfd /dev/dri /dev/dri/*` on the host system to determine the group assignments on your system, and pass additional `--group-add ...` arguments to the container so it can access the required devices.
+
+If you are experiencing problems getting Ollama to correctly discover or use your GPU for inference, the following may help isolate the failure.
+- `AMD_LOG_LEVEL=3` Enable info log levels in the AMD HIP/ROCm libraries.  This can help show more detailed error codes that can help troubleshoot problems
+- `OLLAMA_DEBUG=1` During GPU discovery additional information will be reported
+- Check dmesg for any errors from amdgpu or kfd drivers `sudo dmesg | grep -i amdgpu` and `sudo dmesg | grep -i kfd`
+
 ## Windows Terminal Errors
 
 Older versions of Windows 10 (e.g., 21H1) are known to have a bug where the standard terminal program does not display control characters correctly.  This can result in a long string of strings like `←[?25h←[?25l` being displayed, sometimes erroring with `The parameter is incorrect`  To resolve this problem, please update to Win 10 22H1 or newer.
diff --git a/gpu/amd_linux.go b/gpu/amd_linux.go
index aab67efe..d3f5b9fc 100644
--- a/gpu/amd_linux.go
+++ b/gpu/amd_linux.go
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
+	"io/fs"
 	"log/slog"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
@@ -359,6 +360,10 @@ func AMDGetGPUInfo() []RocmGPUInfo {
 	if len(resp) == 0 {
 		slog.Info("no compatible amdgpu devices detected")
 	}
+	if err := verifyKFDDriverAccess(); err != nil {
+		slog.Error("amdgpu devices detected but permission problems block access", "error", err)
+		return nil
+	}
 	return resp
 }
 
@@ -455,3 +460,19 @@ func getFreeMemory(usedFile string) (uint64, error) {
 	}
 	return usedMemory, nil
 }
+
+func verifyKFDDriverAccess() error {
+	// Verify we have permissions - either running as root, or we have group access to the driver
+	fd, err := os.OpenFile("/dev/kfd", os.O_RDWR, 0o666)
+	if err != nil {
+		if errors.Is(err, fs.ErrPermission) {
+			return fmt.Errorf("permissions not set up properly.  Either run ollama as root, or add you user account to the render group. %w", err)
+		} else if errors.Is(err, fs.ErrNotExist) {
+			// Container runtime failure?
+			return fmt.Errorf("kfd driver not loaded.  If running in a container, remember to include '--device /dev/kfd --device /dev/dri'")
+		}
+		return fmt.Errorf("failed to check permission on /dev/kfd: %w", err)
+	}
+	fd.Close()
+	return nil
+}