diff --git a/garak/generators/huggingface.py b/garak/generators/huggingface.py
index 549d24f05..19ad33267 100644
--- a/garak/generators/huggingface.py
+++ b/garak/generators/huggingface.py
@@ -575,7 +575,11 @@ def __init__(self, name="", config_root=_config):
         for k, v in generation_params.items():
             setattr(self.model.generation_config, k, v)
 
-        self.model.to(self.device)
+        # A model dispatched by accelerate (hf_device_map set) can have modules
+        # offloaded to CPU/disk, which makes .to() raise; move it only when
+        # accelerate did not place it.
+        if not getattr(self.model, "hf_device_map", None):
+            self.model.to(self.device)
 
         if stored_env:
             os.environ[disable_env_key] = stored_env
@@ -587,11 +591,19 @@ def generate(
     ) -> List[Union[Message, None]]:
 
         text_prompt = prompt.last_message().text
+        image_path = prompt.last_message().data_path
+        if image_path is None:
+            # LLaVA needs an image; a text-only prompt has none to open.
+            raise GarakException(
+                f"{self.name} requires an image but received a text-only prompt. "
+                "Use an image+text probe (e.g. visual_jailbreak.*), set a "
+                "Message.data_path, or run with strict_modality_match to skip "
+                "text-only probes for this target."
+            )
         try:
-            image_prompt = self.PIL.Image.open(prompt.last_message().data_path)
+            image_prompt = self.PIL.Image.open(image_path)
         except FileNotFoundError:
-            file_path = prompt.last_message().data_path
-            raise FileNotFoundError(f"Cannot open image {file_path}.")
+            raise FileNotFoundError(f"Cannot open image {image_path}.")
         except Exception as e:
             raise Exception(e)
 
diff --git a/tests/generators/test_llava.py b/tests/generators/test_llava.py
index 71574d406..554670eec 100644
--- a/tests/generators/test_llava.py
+++ b/tests/generators/test_llava.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 
 from garak.attempt import Conversation, Turn, Message
 from garak._config import GarakSubConfig
-from garak.exception import TargetNameMissingError
+from garak.exception import GarakException, TargetNameMissingError
 
 try:
     from PIL import Image, ImageDraw
@@ -132,3 +132,87 @@ def test_llava_supported_models_list():
     assert len(SUPPORTED_MODELS) > 0
     for model in SUPPORTED_MODELS:
         assert model.startswith("llava-hf/")
+
+
+def _model_mock(hf_device_map):
+    """Fake model whose `.to` is observable; `hf_device_map` mimics accelerate
+    dispatch (a dict) or no dispatch (None)."""
+    model = MagicMock(name="Model")
+    model.to = MagicMock(name="to")
+    model.hf_device_map = hf_device_map
+    return model
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    "hf_device_map, should_move", [({"": "cpu"}, False), (None, True)]
+)
+def test_llava_model_move_respects_device_map(
+    llava_config, monkeypatch, hf_device_map, should_move
+):
+    """__init__ must not call `model.to()` when accelerate dispatched the
+    model (`hf_device_map` set) — that raises on offloaded models — but must move
+    it when accelerate did not place it."""
+    model = _model_mock(hf_device_map)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        "transformers.LlavaNextForConditionalGeneration.from_pretrained",
+        lambda name, **kw: model,
+    )
+    llava = LLaVA(name=SUPPORTED_MODELS[0], config_root=llava_config)
+    if should_move:
+        model.to.assert_called_once_with(llava.device)
+    else:
+        model.to.assert_not_called()
+
+
+def test_llava_error_on_text_only_prompt(llava_config):
+    """Text-only prompt (`data_path is None`) raises a GarakException correctly."""
+    llava = LLaVA(name=SUPPORTED_MODELS[0], config_root=llava_config)
+    with pytest.raises(GarakException):
+        llava.generate(Conversation([Turn("user", Message(text="foo"))]))
+
+
+def test_llava_generate_runs_when_model_dispatched_across_devices(
+    llava_config, llava_test_image, tmp_path
+):
+    """A model split across devices by accelerate raises on `.to()` (which is why
+    __init__ guards the move), yet generate() still runs: the processor output is a
+    BatchFeature, so `.to(self.device)` is an ordinary tensor move and accelerate's
+    hooks realign inputs per submodule at forward time."""
+    accelerate = pytest.importorskip("accelerate")
+    import torch.nn as nn
+    from types import SimpleNamespace
+    from transformers.feature_extraction_utils import BatchFeature
+
+    class TinyVLM(nn.Module):
+        def __init__(self):
+            super().__init__()
+            self.embed = nn.Embedding(16, 8)
+            self.head = nn.Linear(8, 16)
+            self.generation_config = SimpleNamespace(max_new_tokens=None)
+
+        def generate(self, **inputs):
+            return self.head(self.embed(inputs["input_ids"])).argmax(dim=-1)
+
+    # cpu + disk split -> multi-entry hf_device_map with offloaded params on `meta`
+    model = accelerate.dispatch_model(
+        TinyVLM().eval(),
+        device_map={"embed": "cpu", "head": "disk"},
+        offload_dir=str(tmp_path / "offload"),
+    )
+    assert len(model.hf_device_map) > 1
+    # the move __init__ guards against: this dispatched model cannot be `.to()`-moved
+    with pytest.raises(RuntimeError):
+        model.to(torch.device("cpu"))
+
+    processor = MagicMock()
+    processor.return_value = BatchFeature({"input_ids": torch.tensor([[1, 2, 3]])})
+    processor.decode.return_value = "across-device output"
+
+    llava = LLaVA(name=SUPPORTED_MODELS[0], config_root=llava_config)
+    llava.model = model
+    llava.processor = processor
+    llava.device = torch.device("cpu")
+
+    conv = Conversation([Turn("user", Message(text="x", data_path=llava_test_image))])
+    # generate() completes even though `.to()` on this same model would have raised
+    assert llava.generate(conv) == [Message("across-device output")]