# 13.1 download checksum never matches



## loopier (Nov 1, 2022)

Hi,

I'm considering moving from my current ArcLlinux system to FreeBSD, I don't need to live in the bleeding edge, and I'm looking for a more stable system. I'm a complete newbie to BSD. I just learned about it a few days ago (I had heard about it but never looked into it). Now I'm looking forward to give it a serious try.

I tried downloading the memstick 13.1 image (both mini and standard) and ran the checksum test as the instructions suggest, but I seem to always get a corrupt file. I've downloaded the image a few times and checked it both against 512 and 256 checksums and never get them to match. Any hints on what may be causing this or what I may be doing wrong? I tried burning the image to a stick and boot it from an old thinkpad x250 but it doesn't do anything, just black screen. Any alternative to download the image?

I've been on Arch-ish systems for a couple of years and know my way around, but I'm no sysadmin, just a regular linux desktop (laptop) user. I'm an illustrator and musician, not a computer scientist. Just saying so anyone answering get an idea of the type of user they are talking to 

Cheers!


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## SirDice (Nov 1, 2022)

loopier said:


> I tried downloading the memstick 13.1 image (both mini and standard)


What's the full name of the file you downloaded?


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## covacat (Nov 1, 2022)

```
openssl sha256  Downloads/FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz |awk '{print $2}'|xargs -I[] grep [] Downloads/CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz) = 8f0df8762fae588c457ce48bc34f617aae8a66723254aa143acadcec93933b8f
```
seems ok to me


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## CuatroTorres (Nov 1, 2022)

Release or stable, architecture?
I just downloaded FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img from Windows and apparently the SHA256* is right. It showed me a stupid system harmful file alert, nothing more.
It can be a wrong download, your disk is on the last legs, compare the sum of the wrong file or architecture. You can try torrent download that checks CRC. For newcomers from Linux, you'll want Release. Stable means the version under development.



			Torrents - FreeBSD Wiki
		


Or try to repair the img file with rsync:






						Force rsync to use delta transfer to fix corrupt remote file – Just another Linux geek
					






					blog.christophersmart.com
				




*SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img) = 348f6541f3b6cc914504c34d035c7ff085baad99298cf646504dcecd4c9913c0


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## loopier (Nov 1, 2022)

Thanks for your replies. 
I downloaded the RELEASE memstick and mini-memstick

```
~/Downloads/FreeBSD > sha256sum CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64 FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img
b400711b3e998ff009a8edabfefe70ce26be4cb11fc9a82bfe890a05e8eac421  CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64
348f6541f3b6cc914504c34d035c7ff085baad99298cf646504dcecd4c9913c0  FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img

~/Downloads/FreeBSD > sha256sum CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64 FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img
b400711b3e998ff009a8edabfefe70ce26be4cb11fc9a82bfe890a05e8eac421  CHECKSUM.SHA256-FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64
f73ce6526ccd24dfe2e79740f6de1ad1a304c854bfcff03a4d5b0de35d69d4a0  FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img
```


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## SirDice (Nov 1, 2022)

Why are you checksumming the checksum file? If you look _inside_ the checksum file you'll see:

```
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso) = 02e77c57bd0a306e3fc92296b3640433a3bd7e4ba39d82db94dfd885f5bb1f78
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso.xz) = ffb6def0b167d25d4ee1c8eea292bbd3ac8cf877555f41251ac0d140cee108c0
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso) = 697d81653fa246b921ddfcf1d15562c55249cc727b11fa3e47f470e2cf2b6a40
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso.xz) = e18907b6ec09e14c2065049873d28bf78682821903074e0e602e07f29075d347
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso) = 5b29c2cd5a604ad24810c994027ec13c9efc53778a307831f6181dfdaf02939f
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso.xz) = 8b22dd325280c811725ca8178d8408d7a235161fbb1650b2a369b6e8acbaeaf8
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img) = f73ce6526ccd24dfe2e79740f6de1ad1a304c854bfcff03a4d5b0de35d69d4a0
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-memstick.img.xz) = 1ad1c64546f27e7720690f7338be2314d0c3097549a3ee12e8d888388bf01a6f
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img) = 348f6541f3b6cc914504c34d035c7ff085baad99298cf646504dcecd4c9913c0
SHA256 (FreeBSD-13.1-RELEASE-amd64-mini-memstick.img.xz) = 8f0df8762fae588c457ce48bc34f617aae8a66723254aa143acadcec93933b8f
```

And those match with the images you downloaded. You are comparing the checksums of two different files, those are never going to match.


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## CuatroTorres (Nov 1, 2022)

`sha256sum -c checksum-sha256-filename`

It should tell you the files where the sum matches. You must have the .img file in the same directory.


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## loopier (Nov 1, 2022)

I missread the checksum command in the instructions... sorry about that. I didn't really know how checksum works, it makes sense now. Thanks a lot for you help.

I still can't boot from the USB stick, but that's another issue. 

Thanks again


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## SirDice (Nov 1, 2022)

loopier said:


> I still can't boot from the USB stick, but that's another issue.


What command did you use to write to the stick? Make sure you're writing the image to the disk itself, not a partition on that disk.


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## loopier (Nov 1, 2022)

SirDice said:


> What command did you use to write to the stick? Make sure you're writing the image to the disk itself, not a partition on that disk.


That was the problem, thanks, I was writing to `/dev/sdb1` instead of `/dev/sdb`. It's working now.

Thank you very much for your help. You were all very helpful Moving on to installation process.

Cheers!


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## jb1277976 (Nov 1, 2022)

loopier said:


> Hi,
> 
> I'm considering moving from my current ArcLlinux system to FreeBSD, I don't need to live in the bleeding edge, and I'm looking for a more stable system. I'm a complete newbie to BSD. I just learned about it a few days ago (I had heard about it but never looked into it). Now I'm looking forward to give it a serious try.
> 
> ...


Happens to me every time I installed FreeBSD it would wipe my Hard Drive and get a checksum error. This happend with 3 external usb drives and Ethernet. You need to download a. Memstick burn it like an iso then install. I haven't had a checksum error since. I've installed freeBSD like 3 times easily. 

The memstick does the checksums in the beginning.


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