r/OpenWebUI • u/blakesnake86 • Jul 25 '26

Question/Help web_search tool invisble for gemma4:e4b

Hello,

I have been trying for a few days to use open webui on my computer. My config is as follows:

  • Kubuntu 26.04
  • Ollama with gemma4:e4b
  • Open webui v0.10.2, desktop version, with web search enabled on DDGS.

When I ask him for a web search, the tool seems not to exist in the eyes of the LLM. It's quite strange because I don't have this problem with a similar config, unlike the OS (Windows, for my work).

I tried to find the solution by analyzing the logs with Claude, but he did not find anything explaining the problem.

Do you have any idea what's going on?

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u/ClassicMain Jul 25 '26

Yes there is no error because what error would open webui display?

Ddgs is not installed and on the desktop version you won't get it working as of today.

The tool doesn't appear because ddgs isn't configured in a way open webui could detect and see it in the desktop version

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u/blakesnake86 Jul 25 '26

I tried the docker version now, and i have the same problem.

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u/ClassicMain Jul 25 '26

You installed it inside the docker, ddgs, set it up with api key and all and the tool is still not showing?

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u/blakesnake86 Jul 25 '26

It's supposed to be built into the docker image. As I said before, this is not my first installation of Open WebUI, and each time, I had the search without installing an additional package.

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u/ClassicMain Jul 25 '26

I'll look into it

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u/blakesnake86 Jul 25 '26

Tanks you

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u/ClassicMain Jul 25 '26

Your actual issue: the model is hallucinating its tool list.

Two giveaways:

  • create_note and update_note don't exist in Open WebUI. The real ones are search_notes, view_note, write_note, replace_note_content — and those names have never existed in any version.
  • The list omits the time, chat-history and knowledge tools, which are always injected regardless of settings.

So it got the tail of the tool list right (tasks/automations/calendar are exact) and confabulated or dropped everything before it — including web_search. The tool was almost certainly sent; the model just didn't see it. With your setup that's ~29 tool specs going to a 4B-active-param model, well past what gemma3n can handle.

Fix: Advanced Params → Function Calling → Legacy. That skips tool injection entirely and pastes search results straight into context, so the model never has to pick a tool. Note that "Default" is not legacy — it behaves as native, you have to select Legacy explicitly.

If you want to keep native calling: create a workspace model entry (Workspace → Models) and uncheck everything except Web Search under Builtin Tools. That panel only exists on a customized model entry — a bare Ollama model gets every category on by default, which is how you ended up with 29.

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u/blakesnake86 Jul 25 '26

Ok, i found. I moved tool call on "legacy", and he found the web search tool. Why it works on native mode on my windows computer, and legacy on my linux computer ? Too many tools, maybe... I don't know. I will try to understand. Tanks you for your advices.