Validating Your Download with Checksums
When you download ISOs and content from ClearOS, it is best practice to validate your ISO against the release notes for your version so that you know that the content really comes from us.
To do this, the checksum is included in the release notes of each version.
Checksum
With ClearOS 7 the checksum that is included is a SHA256 sum. After you download the ISO, you will run a program to calculate the cryptographic sum of the ISO file. If the sum matches then you can have high confidence that the file you downloaded is an exact copy of the file that was created by the ClearOS build systems when they crafted the ISO.
Checking the SHA256SUM in Linux
If you have downloaded the ISO simply run the following command against the file you downloaded:
sha256sum /root/ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso
This would result in the following on the 7.2 ISO
b4da8ffa10945e4d95478edb32f7a3dd9691f9a6c6d7820b1ffa346f6eb6a878 ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso
Checking the SHA256SUM in Mac
Checking the SHA256 sum is easy on Mac. Download the ISO image for ClearOS. Then launch the Terminal application located in Applications » Utilities. At that prompt, type the following:
shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso
This will give you the following result for the ClearOS 7.2 ISO image:
b4da8ffa10945e4d95478edb32f7a3dd9691f9a6c6d7820b1ffa346f6eb6a878 /Users/username/Downloads/ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso
Checking the SHA256SUM in Windows
Under Windows, you will need to download a SHA test programs such as this one:
http://www.labtestproject.com/files/win/sha256sum/sha256sum.exe
Download the ClearOS ISO and locate its path. (eg. C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Downloads)
Next, you will need to open your Command Prompt by running 'cmd' from your Run dialog. On Windows 10 you can use Cortana for that and in prior versions, look for the 'Run' option or the 'Search Programs and Files' and insert 'cmd' and press
Next, change into your directory where you downloaded the ISO and run the sha256sum program against the ISO from command line:
cd "C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\My Downloads\" sha256sum.exe ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso
You should get a result similar to this:
b4da8ffa10945e4d95478edb32f7a3dd9691f9a6c6d7820b1ffa346f6eb6a878 *ClearOS-DVD-x86_64.iso