cheking the md5 somehow

tonchiba · 12-29-2009, 07:15 PM

hi! i've just downloaded linux mint 8 ... and somewhere says i should chek the md5 so i colud be sure that it hasen't been corruped or something, so can someone explain it to me how can i make an md5 chek like i am a 2 years old!

exvor · 12-29-2009, 07:20 PM

You need to download the md5 file from the web page and use a md5 checker program. If this is windows you can find one by doing a google search. The md5 check file should be in the same place you downloaded the disk image. Here is a checker that works cross platform and is free http://md5deep.sourceforge.net/

Brains · 12-29-2009, 10:10 PM

Or you can go to the directory containing the .iso CD image file from a linux system and issue command: md5sum nameofcd.iso to produce the results you're looking for. In the example below I navigate to my data drive called "large", list the contents of the drive and produce a md5 sum for the Debian CD ISO image.

Code:

jo@fox:~$ cd /large/
jo@fox:/large$ ls
1600MB.dd  debian-Lenny-DI-rc2-i386-DVD-1.iso  flash.dd      Knoppix              Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg  pagefile.sys  System Volume Information
2GB.dd     dianes.dd                           garbage20.dd  knoppixcdupdated.dd  osx.TBI                   $RECYCLE.BIN  Temp
4gb2.dmg   Drive0_images                       image.dd      Lappy Images         p2                        RECYCLER      USB-Knoppix
jo@fox:/large$ md5sum debian-Lenny-DI-rc2-i386-DVD-1.iso
ab36c33cd63b4c06f707bc3688c2e877  debian-Lenny-DI-rc2-i386-DVD-1.iso
jo@fox:/large$

onebuck · 12-29-2009, 10:25 PM

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

The 'md5sum' or 'hash' is very important to learn to use and too regularly get in the habit of utilizing it. You can get a sum checker for M$ if need be; 'md5sum.exe'.

For GNU/Linux the 'man md5sum' will get you all the information to perform the check. You can get the 'man command' from the 'cli' at anytime.

If you downloaded the CD/DVD ISO then be sure to check the md5sum for the original ISO. From the cli;

Code:

~#cd /downloadisolocation      #cdromiso.iso & cdromiso.md5 

~#md5sum -c cdromiso.md5       #substitute the correct name to check

If the ISO md5 is OK then you should check the image burn with 'CdromMd5sumsAfterBurning''.

This way you will know if the burn was OK!

This will check the download ISO with the known md5sum that you should get with the ISO. You should do the check for any download that you might perform, even a LiveCD. Plus burn the image. Sometimes you may need to lower the burn rate to get a valid burn.

The above links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!