Using MD5 Checksums
Content
MD5 checksums are used to establish the code integrity of software you download. Using them grants you more security.
This is how you verify MD5 checksums on all platforms with the Firefox web browser
- Install the MD Hash Tool extension for Firefox, then close and restart Firefox for it to
take effect. (You may want to temporarily bookmark this page so you can easily find it again).
Update:it seems that this extension is no longer valid for Firefox. If there is a more modern one, please let us know! Thanks, the OpenOffice.org
Team.
- Download the OpenOffice.org archive file for your Operating System.
- In Firefox, go to the "Downloads" window (if you don't see it, press [Ctrl]-[J] or select Tools from the top menu, then Downloads) and
right click the OpenOffice.org archive file, then select "Check Digest" as shown below.
- Copy the MD5 Checksum for the corresponding OpenOffice.org archive file from the MD5Sum page (linked to on the latest download page) and paste it into
the "Reference Digest" space. Now, there are two possibilities:
- If a green light and "match" are displayed (as shown below), both checksums are the same. This means you have downloaded the OpenOffice.org
package.
- If a red X and "no match" are displayed, the checksums do not match. This means an error occurred during download, or the file on the server is not
the same as the original. If you are sure that the download proceeded without problems, then please inform
Webmasters.
Note: If you downloaded the OpenOffice.org archive file before you installed MD Hash Tool, you can now verify the MD5 checksum without downloading
it again. Select Tools from the top menu, then MD Hash Tool. Input type: file and Hash Alg: MD5 should be the default. Click "browse..." then select
the OpenOffice.org archive file, then click "compute digest." Compare the Message Digest (calculated MD5 Checksum) with the one listed for the corresponding
OpenOffice.org archive on the MD5Sum page (linked to on the latest download page).
This is how you verify MD5 checksums on Windows
The Easy Way (digestIT with GUI)
digestIT is a graphical tool that should be easier to use for most Windows users.
- Download digestIT.
- Navigate in Windows Explorer to the directory where you saved/downloaded the OpenOffice.org archive.
- Right click the OpenOffice.org archive file in and select digestIT -> Verify MD5 Hash (or Calculate MD5 Hash).
- If you select "Verify MD5 Hash" then you will be able to copy and paste the MD5 from MD5Sum page (linked to on the latest download page). If the
checksums match, you will see: "Digest matches. Verification succeeded."
- If you select "Calculate MD5 Hash" then you will need to visually compare the calculated MD5 with the one listed on the MD5Sum page (linked to on the
latest download page).
The Less Easy Way (using the command line)
- Download
md5sum.exe
and copy the file to C:\Windows
(or C:\WINNT
for Windows NT 4.0/2000).
- Open a DOS prompt by clicking "Run" in the start menu, then type
command
(Windows 9x/ME) or cmd
(WinNT/2K/XP).
- In the DOS prompt window, use the
cd
command to navigate to the subdirectory where you stored the downloaded OpenOffice.org archive file.
For example, assume that your downloaded OpenOffice.org archive file is in C:\My Documents\Downloads\
, then the command would be:
cd "My Documents\Downloads"
.
- If it is on another drive, e.g. on the D: drive, you have to change the drive with
d:
and then change to the proper subdirectory using
the cd
command.
- Now type
md5sum archive_name.exe
With most users this will look like: md5sum [filename]
- The md5sum program will calculate the checksum of the archive file, and it will show this on the next line, followed by
* Archive_name.exe
.
It should look something like this:
- Compare the calculated MD5 Checksum with the one listed for the corresponding OpenOffice.org archive on the MD5Sum page (linked to on the latest
download page).
- For easier comparison, you could make the DOS prompt window smaller and place it above the window showing the listed checksums. Now, there are two
possibilities:
- Both checksums are the same. This means you have downloaded the OpenOffice.org package.
- The checksums do not match. This means an error occurred during download, or the file on the server is not the same as the original. If you are sure
that the download proceeded without problems, then please inform the Webmasters.
This is how you verify MD5 checksums on Linux
- In the shell of your preference, type the command
"md5sum Archivname.tar.gz"
- Compare the calculated MD5 Checksum with the one listed for the corresponding OpenOffice.org archive on the MD5Sum page (linked to on the latest
download page).
- If the checksums do not match, and you are sure it isn't caused by an error during downloading, please inform the
Webmasters.
Links to the Windows MD5 checker application
If one of the links below doesn't work, try another one.
Source code:
Original: Simon Brouwer (2003-11). Revised: Ant Bryan (2006-02).