md5 sum

[kamal]

md5 sum what is it and why do i need it?

[Harry Kuhman]

md5 sum what is it and why do i need it?

It confirms that the file you downloaded is not corrupt (by doing a mathamatical operation on the file that gives a string, the "md5 sum" that can be compaird to other md5 sums. You really need it in the case of Knoppix, because often when downloading these 700 meg files you get corruption (I believe there is a configuration issue that is causing a translation as if the file was a text file in the case of Knoppix), About half of all the Knoppix ISO files I've downloaded have been corrupt. Download the small mde5 sum file, get any of the many free md5 calculation programs (look on Google), and make the check. It will save you time and effort in the end.

[Harry Kuhman]

Here's a link to a pretty nice md5 sum program: http://sourceforge.net/projects/md5summer/
Thanks go to firebyrd10 for pointing it out.