try 12.5.1 devel ..... and building 3.12.9 from src

Dockerfile

@@ -1,25 +1,34 @@
-# Use NVIDIA’s CUDA 12.5.1 with cuDNN 9 on Ubuntu 22.04
-FROM nvidia/cuda:12.5.1-cudnn9-runtime-ubuntu22.04
+# Use NVIDIA’s CUDA 12.5.1 with cuDNN (devel) on UBI9
+FROM nvidia/cuda:12.5.1-cudnn-devel-ubi9
 
-# Set non-interactive mode for apt-get
+# Set non-interactive mode
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
-# Install system packages and add deadsnakes PPA for Python 3.12.9
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-    software-properties-common \
-    && add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa -y \
-    && apt-get update && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
-       python3.12 \
-       python3.12-venv \
-       python3.12-dev \
-       python3-pip \
+# Update and install necessary system packages with microdnf
+RUN microdnf update -y && \
+    microdnf install -y \
        git \
        curl \
-    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
-
-# Create symlinks for python and pip
-RUN ln -s /usr/bin/python3.12 /usr/local/bin/python && \
-    ln -s /usr/bin/pip3 /usr/local/bin/pip
+       gcc \
+       gcc-c++ \
+       make \
+       openssl-devel \
+       bzip2-devel \
+       libffi-devel \
+       zlib-devel \
+       xz-devel && \
+    microdnf clean all
+
+# Build and install Python 3.12.9 from source
+RUN curl -L https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.9/Python-3.12.9.tgz -o Python-3.12.9.tgz && \
+    tar -xf Python-3.12.9.tgz && \
+    cd Python-3.12.9 && \
+    ./configure --enable-optimizations && \
+    make -j $(nproc) && \
+    make altinstall && \
+    cd .. && rm -rf Python-3.12.9 Python-3.12.9.tgz && \
+    ln -s /usr/local/bin/python3.12 /usr/local/bin/python && \
+    ln -s /usr/local/bin/pip3.12 /usr/local/bin/pip
 
 # Upgrade pip to the latest version
 RUN pip install --upgrade pip
@@ -30,10 +39,10 @@ RUN pip install torch torchvision --extra-index-url https://download.pytorch.org
 # Set the working directory
 WORKDIR /app
 
-# Copy requirements.txt first to leverage Docker caching
+# Copy requirements.txt first for caching
 COPY requirements.txt .
 
-# Install other Python dependencies
+# Install Python dependencies
 RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
 
 # Copy the rest of your repository into the container
@@ -42,7 +51,7 @@ COPY . .
 # Set environment variable to mitigate CUDA memory fragmentation
 ENV PYTORCH_CUDA_ALLOC_CONF=expandable_segments:True
 
-# Expose the default port for Streamlit
+# Expose the default Streamlit port
 EXPOSE 8501
 
 # Command to run your Streamlit app