Q4OS Forum

Taige

Member

Registered: 2025-08-19

Posts: 39

How to check ISO integrity

I couldn't find a source that explains how to check the integrity of the Q4os iso and then know if everything is ok.
Do you know any link about it?

bin

Member

From: U.K.

Registered: 2016-01-28

Posts: 1,560

Re: How to check ISO integrity

At the bottom of https://www.q4os.org/downloads1.html you will see the md5sum values for the iso files in Q4OS 5
If you are downloading one of the Q4OS 6 testing files then you will need the md5sum.txt file in the testing download location - e.g. https://sourceforge.net/projects/q4os/files/testing/

Download the iso and in your download location run md5sum <name of iso> and compare the value with the ones on the web page. If that is the only .iso file in your download location then md5sum *.iso is quicker.

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: How to check ISO integrity

And once you have created you bootable USB key:
- don't remove it and don't use it yet to boot,
- instead, open your file browser (Dolphin if you are using Plasma),
- navigate to its root directory: it is located somewhere in /media/<your_user_account>
- you'll see it contains the files `md5sum.txt`, `sha256sum.txt`, as well as their `.README` which explain how to use them,
- while in Dolphin, click on the "Tools" menu then "Open a Terminal" (or Shift+F4)
- once in the Terminal, type one or both of these commands to check files integrity on you USB key (as explained in the .READMEs):

md5sum -c md5sum.txt
sha256sum -c sha256sum.txt

It can take some time to check big files.

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Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Taige

Member

Registered: 2025-08-19

Posts: 39

Re: How to check ISO integrity

The iso is q4os-5.8-x64.r1.iso and i'm on windows 10.
Is that md5sum a program I need to download somewhere?

Last edited by Taige (2025-08-27 11:40)

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: How to check ISO integrity

I could find many tutos that explain how to check md5 sums and sha256 sums. I think the best for you is to search the one that suits you (keywords = md5 sha256 Windows). From what I read quickly, it seems that you just need to use builtins (Power Shell, certUtil), nothing to install.
But you'll be able to check integrity of you .iso only; the test I mentioned in post #3 will not work (or at least I didn't find the equivalent).

Note that if you want to keep Windows, you should probably use the Windows Installer.

Last edited by hchiper (2025-08-27 12:44)

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Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Taige

Member

Registered: 2025-08-19

Posts: 39

Re: How to check ISO integrity

I read this guide https://www.shellhacks.com/windows-md5- … n-utility/ and the result for md5 and sha256 about q4os-5.8-x64.r1.iso was this: successful execution of the hashfile command.

Thank you all for the tips.

Last edited by Taige (2025-08-27 13:59)

hchiper

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2020-07-28

Posts: 788

Re: How to check ISO integrity

What is expected is that the utility returns the so-called "checksum" (an MD5 checksum looks like "22653fd6ece1a5992fb52b87ba3258b5") and to compare it with the one given on Q4OS download page.
Sorry I can't test because I don't have anymore a Windows machine here.

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Q4OS machine: Samsung R519 - Pentium T4200 2.0 GHz - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB SSD

Taige

Member

Registered: 2025-08-19

Posts: 39

Re: How to check ISO integrity

What is expected is that the utility returns the so-called "checksum" (an MD5 checksum looks like "22653fd6ece1a5992fb52b87ba3258b5") and to compare it with the one given on Q4OS download page.
Sorry I can't test because I don't have anymore a Windows machine here.

Yes, the checksum of the downloaded iso file is the same as the one on the download page.