Revision of Download Trisquel from Mon, 09/16/2024 - 19:08

Choosing an edition of Trisquel

The download page of this site offers different flavors of Trisquel:

• Trisquel: with the MATE desktop, for home and office use, the most popular edition;
• Trisquel Mini: with the LXDE desktop, for older hardware;
• Triskel: with the KDE desktop, for fine-grained customizing;
• Trisquel Sugar TOAST: with the Sugar learning environment, for schools;
• NetInstall: with a minimal text-only environment to build upon, for advanced users.

Downloading the ISO image

Once your choice made, the bottom of the download page lets you select a mirror. You may pick the closest to you. Then, either directly download the ISO image or a torrent file (recommended during the few days following a release), by clicking on the corresponding button.

Downloading files to verify the ISO image

The button brings a new page, with links. To verify (in the next section of this manual) the integrity of the ISO image and to authenticate (in the section after) the Trisquel project as its author, click on the links ending with ".iso.sha256" and ".iso.asc" and save the files they point to the folder where the ISO image is downloaded. It is also possible to live dangerously, by verifying nothing and directly proceeding with the creation of the live system from the ISO image.

Verifying the integrity of the ISO image

To check whether the downloaded ISO image exactly corresponds to what was uploaded to the mirror (no corruption during the download), open a terminal in the folder with the ISO image and the corresponding SHA256 file (or navigate with cd to that folder) and execute: $ sha256sum -c *.iso.sha256 After a few seconds, the command reports whether the integrity is OK or not. In the former case, you can proceed. In the latter case, retry downloading the ISO image, from a different mirror.

Authenticating the author of the ISO image

In a compromised mirror, the SHA256 files can be replaced along with the corresponding ISO images: the integrity checks pass! GnuPG can authenticate the Trisquel project as the author of the ISO image.

On GNU/Linux

Most GNU/Linux distributions have in their repositories a package for GnuPG. Install it. On Trisquel GNU/Linux or any Debian derivative, the package is named "gnupg" and apt (or any front-end to APT) can be used: $ sudo apt install gnupg Once GnuPG installed, open a terminal in the folder with the ISO image and the corresponding ASC file (or navigate with cd to that folder) and:

1. import the public key of the Trisquel project: $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys D24DDAC9226D5BA5E9F3BED3F5DAAAF74AD4C938
2. authenticate the Trisquel project as the author of the ISO image: $ gpg --verify *.iso.asc

On Windows

Download Gpg4win. Install it. Open a command prompt. Navigate with cd to the folder with the ISO image and the corresponding ASC file. There:

1. import the public key of the Trisquel project: C:\Program Files\Gnu\GnuPg\gpg.exe --keyserver x-hkp://pool.sks-keyservers.net --recv-keys D24DDAC9226D5BA5E9F3BED3F5DAAAF74AD4C938
2. authenticate the Trisquel project as the author of the ISO image: C:\Program Files\Gnu\GnuPg\gpg.exe --verify *.iso.asc

Expected output

If the authentication is successful, gpg outputs that (possibly translated) line, among others: gpg: Good signature from "Trisquel GNU/Linux Archive Automatic Signing Key (11/aramo) <trisquel-devel@trisquel.info>" If not, retry downloading the ISO image, from a different mirror. The probable warning at the end of gpg's output deals with certifying that the public key of the Trisquel project indeed belongs to the Trisquel project. That requires an in-person meeting with a Trisquel developer or with enough people trusting the key. You can read more about the Web of Trust on Wikipedia.