Integrity check or Check for Defects option on boot [SOLVED]

[Moderator BobC]

Given my rash of problems with bad “burns” or “read” causing errors when booting/installing, I’m asking if an “Integrity Check” or “Check for Defects” option could be added to the boot menu on the flashdrive, cd or dvd, that would run an md5sum of the media and compare it to the expected md5sum value to tell me if it burned correctly and if it is readable correctly by the system its being booted in.

I found in all cases that my downloaded md5sum of the iso itself was correct, but that in some cases not even the system that had created it could read it correctly, and in other cases, other machines couldn’t read it correctly. Of course I spent a lot of time installing and then trying to figure out (and asking dumb questions) about weird errors, like IceWM tray missing, or Wpa_Gui won’t run, later, only to find the root cause was a bad burn or read of the image, some caused by insufficient power to the USB and others unknown.

I noticed that Ubuntu and its children have a “Check for Defects” option, and Linux Mint has an “Integrity Check” option, which I assume is similar. I tried to investigate how to add the option, but have been unsuccessful so far, and to be honest, couldn’t figure out what determines how the AntiX boot menu comes up or what is in it, but I think it would save lots of headaches if it were available and used. I’m hoping it would be easy to add and compact enough to not worry about its size, but I guess someone that knows how it works would need to answer that.

Thanks
BobC

• This topic was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by BobC.

[Anonymous]

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Hi bob,
I think if a check is put in place it would be better if it was the sha256 instead
of md5sum….much more secure.

[Moderator BobC]

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I don’t disagree that SHA256 would be better, sure, if that’s easy…

But I see those .MD5 files sitting there on my bad flashdrive I burned, and would be happy if we could just make use of what exists and is already being done elsewhere, rather than ask for something more difficult.

[Anonymous]

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I usually still use cd not usb, but I always now check md5 since my bad mint disk.
not sure about easier just know that some sites are doing sha256 with their iso images.
I don’t roll images so I don’t know if converting is hard or not.

[Moderator BobC]

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When Linux Mint got hacked, I bet the “Integrity Check” got added, as a result.

I would think there is also a SHA256 generator, but maybe that’s not easy to integrate into the boot iso, and I don’t know that answer, where we do know the MD5 check is already being used on other distros, so the way to make that work already exists.

Maybe an even better objective would be to add the SHA256 check, if its doable, but I think it would have prevented my problems if I would have checked the MD5 from the booting system before trying to boot it the first time.

[Moderator BobC]

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So I looked at linux-Mint in isolinux, and if you look below integrity-check is a boot option

label check
menu label Integrity check
kernel /casper/vmlinuz
append boot=casper integrity-check initrd=/casper/initrd.lz quiet splash —

I looked at lbuntu, also, and again it has integrity-check as a boot option when you say Check for Defects

That leads me to believe its something configured or compiled into the kernel or not. Not sure how much it would add if so, or if worthwhile.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 1 month ago by BobC.

[Forum Admin Dave]

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Is this not already part of the f4 menu on the boot screen? Maybe it is another f option but I am sure it is there and uses the files off the CD / usb for comparison

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Moderator BobC]

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Wow, yes it is there!

Very cool, wish I had seen that sooner 🙂

Problem SOLVED!

[Author]

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