**Root cause**  
The server is trying to allocate a KV‑cache that is larger than the free GPU memory.  
`requested ctx=262144` means the model needs a cache for 262 144 tokens, but only **1 024 MiB** is available. The GPU simply does not have enough RAM to hold that cache.

**Next two actions**

1. **Reduce the context length (or switch to a smaller model).**  
   * Lower the `--ctx`/`--max-tokens` value so the KV cache fits in the available GPU memory.  
   * If you’re using a very large model, consider using a smaller one that requires less cache.

2. **Free or increase GPU memory.**  
   * Close any other GPU‑heavy processes or restart the server to reclaim memory.  
   * If possible, move to a GPU with more VRAM (e.g., 8 GB or 12 GB) or enable CPU‑based KV caching as a fallback.