Downloading the aptosid ISO

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: aptosid, as a Linux LIVE-CD, is based on high compression technology, and because of that, special care is needed when burning the ISO image. Only use high quality CD-media [or DVD+RW] and burn in DAO-mode (disk-at-once) and not faster than x8.
Please use your closest mirror. Mirrors with codeboxes underneath them get updated as soon as changes are uploaded (refer to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/aptosid.list).

Europe

North America

South America

Africa

Australia

Definitions of files on each mirror

Each aptosid mirror has following files:

MD5SUM
MD5SUM.gpg
SHA256SUM
SHA256SUM.gpg
SOURCES
aptosid-20xx-xx-release-name-window-manager-arch-datetimestamp.arch.manifest
aptosid-20xx-xx-release-name-window-manager-arch-datetimestamp.iso

The .manifest file lists all the packages contained in the specific iso.

The .iso is the image to download.

The MD5SUM and SHA256SUM files are to check the integrity of the iso.

The .gpg files are signature files, so you can verify that the checksums have not been changed and that they can be used to verify the integrity of the iso.

The sources tar is only for those who require a static copy of the source code for redistribution purposes to comply with the licensing requirements. Read the SOURCES file for more information.

Thank you to webtropia.com who sponsor aptosid and to all other mirror hosters for their efforts regarding aptosid.

If anybody has a fast FTP-Server with sufficient traffic at their command, please inform the aptosid team on the aptosid Forums or on our IRC-Channel on oftc.net.

Download-Links and Mirrors are also found on aptosid.com

md5sum and Validation

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: aptosid, as a Linux LIVE-CD, is based on high compression technology, and because of that, special care is needed when burning the ISO image. Only use high quality CD-media [or DVD+RW] and burn in DAO-mode (disk-at-once) and not faster than x8.

This is a checksum for a file and is used to check the integrity of files. The current md5sum of the file is compared with a known checksum. This way you can validate if a file has been changed or damaged; this is advisable for files downloaded from the internet.

If the md5sum of the downloaded file corresponds to the one in the md5-file, you can be sure that the file was downloaded correctly. Under Linux you get the checksum with: (it takes a moment to calculate)

$ md5sum file_to_check

The sum will be written in the konsole.
With md5sum (486 kb) the md5sum can also be validated in Windows.

The ISO-Images of aptosid are always offered with a md5sum file and should always be validated before burning. This guarantees that if problems occur, they are not to be sought in the downloaded files, and this keeps the forum free of problems that can't be pinned down because the ISO-file was damaged in the first place. You should do this in a konsole. Change to the directory with the Iso-File and the MD5-Sum and issue the command to have the md5-sum checked.

Download the following files from the mirror:

MD5SUM
MD5SUM.gpg
SHA256SUM
SHA256SUM.gpg

In a terminal:

$ md5sum aptosid.iso

If they don't match, you will get an error:

"aptosid.iso: Error
md5sum: Warning: calculated checksum does not match!"

If the downloaded file is correct, the program ends without a message.

If you wish to be able to verify the validity of the .gpg files do the following as $USER:
Example using:
aptosid-2011-02-imera-kde-lite-i386-201107131633.iso

1) Import "Stefan Lippers-Hollmann's" (slh's) public key from a key-server. (An alternate keyserver is subkeys.pgp.net ):

$ gpg --keyserver wwwkeys.pgp.net --recv-keys E3BD538B
gpg --edit-key E3BD538B
Command> trust
Command> (choose the option you prefer or quit)
Command> quit

2) Now you can verify the integrity of the checksum with:

$ gpg --verify SHA256SUM.gpg SHA256SUM

If you have classified the key as trustworthy using the necessary gpg commands, then this is the output you should get with "5 trusted ultimately":

$gpg: Signature made Wed 15 Jul 2009 08:20:59 EST using DSA key ID E3BD538B
$ gpg: Good signature from "Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (aptosid.com) <s.l-h@gmx.de>"

You will get 'Good signature' with a WARNING if you did not choose to classify the key:

gpg: Signature made Wed 15 Jul 2009 08:20:59 EST using DSA key ID E3BD538B
gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model
gpg: depth: 0  valid:   2  signed:   0  trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 2u
gpg: Good signature from "Stefan Lippers-Hollmann (aptosid.com) <s.l-h@gmx.de>"
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 64C3 6120 DA8D 91E7 378B  E79F 3916 C431 F809 94F6

How Do I Burn The CD With Windows?

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: aptosid, as a Linux LIVE-CD, is based on high compression technology, and because of that, special care is needed when burning the ISO image. Only use high quality CD-media [or DVD+RW] and burn in DAO-mode (disk-at-once) and not faster than x8.

Naturally, you can burn the CD with Windows, too. The downloaded file must be burned as an ISO-file. If Winrar (or any other archiving tool) is linked with an .ISO-file, it may irritate because one would take it for an archive. From the ISO-file you must burn a CD.

You have several good options to burn in Windows.

Open Source burners for Windows

cdrtfe :compatible for Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP (tested with Win95, Win98SE, Win2000, and WinXP) only for Win9x/ME: working ASPI Layer (e.g. Adaptec ASPI 4.60)

LinuxLive USB Creator, an open source project, offers a GUI for MS Windows™, which enables an install of an aptosid-i386.iso (32 bit) to a USB stick. You need to use fromhd bootline/cheatcode on the boot line.

Closed Source and Proprietary burners for Windows

Burning The CD With Linux

THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT: aptosid, as a Linux LIVE-CD, is based on high compression technology, and because of that, special care is needed when burning the ISO image. Only use high quality CD-media [or DVD+RW] and burn in DAO-mode (disk-at-once) and not faster than x8.

If you already run Linux on your machine you should burn the CD either by using the shell or with any of your installed burning programs.

With aptosid and other Linux distributions K3b comes as default cd-burning tool. Open it, select "Tools" -> "burn CD-Image..." and select the ISO-File to burn (e.g. aptosid.iso).

K3B initially calculates the MD5-sum for the ISO-file (this takes a moment). When the checksum is equal to the checksum in the MD5-file (for example aptosid.iso.md5) your download was successful and you can burn the file by hitting "Start".

Problems with burning mostly happen with a frontend. You can burn directly from the shell with burniso.

Also see Writing aptosid to a USB/SSD stick with any Linux, MS Windows or Mac OS X system (32 and 64 bit).
Content last revised 26/01/2013 0450 UTC