|
When you transfer files across a network -- or more so, the internet -- they can become corrupted. Bits get lost or misplaced, and the file isn't the same as what it originally started as. This is especially true on large files, such as ISOs. They may burn to a CD, and run correctly for a while, but then they'll hit the bad part and error.
Md5sum is a way to check that the file you download is the same as the file on the server. The person who puts the file on the server runs md5sum on the file, and posts the results... A string of numbers and letters that represent a "fingerprint" of the file. After you download, you can run md5sum on your file. If the sums match, then your file is good. The checksum.md5 might be the output of somebody running md5sum on a file. It would be just a text file, so you can open it in an editor and look at it.
Md5sum should be automatically installed on your system. Check for it. On my Linux box, it's in /usr/bin/ .
|
