Download and check the ISO image

Step 1 - Download the SME Server

Download the SME Server software from contribs.org or one of the mirrors. Almost everyone will want to drill down into the "current" and "iso" directories.

There are several files in this directory. You can, of course, download them all, but for the purpose of this how to, you need to download only two:

  1. The <<name>>-<<version>>.iso file (right now it's smeserver-6.0unsupported.iso)
  2. The <<name>>-<<version>>.iso.md5sum file (right now it's smeserver-6.0unsupported.iso.md5sum)

If you don't have a CD burner, find a Linux user group near you. Someone will be sure to help.

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Step 2 - Check the md5sum

Before you burn your CD, it's a good idea to check the integrity of the SME Server ISO image you downloaded. You can do this quickly using md5sum. When you perform an md5sum check, you are comparing the unique 128-bit "signature" of the file you downloaded to the signature of the file on the server. If the "before" and "after" md5 signatures match, you have an uncorrupted file.

To perform an md5sum check on your downloaded file, you need two things. The first is the md5sum program, which is included in all major Linux distributions; a free version for Windows, md5sum.exe, is available from etree.org (see below for instructions on how to download and use it).

The second thing you need is the unique md5 signature of the original file on the server from which you downloaded. This can be found in the same ftp directory as the ISO image, and you should have already downloaded it in Step 1.

Checking the md5sum under Linux

1 Make sure you are in the directory in which you saved the downloaded ISO image.
2 At a command prompt, enter the command (where filename is the name of the ISO file(i.e. '<<name>>-<<version>>.iso'')):

md5sum filename

The calculation may take several minutes. When it's done, you should see the md5 signature (a 32-digit sequence of numbers and letters) of the ISO image you downloaded.

3 Compare this with the signature in the file that you downloaded from the server (i.e. <<name>>-<<version>>.iso.md5sum). If they are the same, you can be sure that the image on your computer is uncorrupted. If they differ, the image is corrupted and you will have to download it again.

Checking the MD5sum under Windows/DOS

Note: If Windows refuses to let you do any of this, it probably means you have insufficient admin rights.

1 Download the md5sum.exe for Windows from etree.org.

For Windows 95/98/ME, download to the C:\Windows\command folder For Windows NT/2000/XP, download to the C:\WINNT\system32 (or C:\WINDOWS\system32) folder

2 Open an MS-DOS window and change to the directory of the file you want to check.

If you've lost the knack of navigating in DOS, click here

3 When you are in that directory, enter the command (where filename is the name of the ISO file(i.e. '<<name>>-<<version>>.iso'')):

md5sum filename

The calculation may take several minutes. When it's done, you should see the md5 signature (a 32-digit sequence of numbers and letters) of the ISO image you downloaded.

4 Compare this with the signature in the file that you downloaded from the server (i.e. <<name>>-<<version>>.iso.md5sum). If they are the same, you can be sure that the image on your computer is uncorrupted. If they differ, the image is corrupted and you will have to download it again


Next Step

OK, you now have the SME Server software downloaded, and ready to burn to CD. See the How to burn the download to a CD page for instructions.


Ross Laver
Mitel Networks Corporation

Copyright © 2000-2002 by Mitel Networks Corporation


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