Todo #14580
closed
Feedback on Installing and Upgrading — Prepare Installation Media
100%
Description
Page: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/prepare-installer-media.html
Feedback: for verifying the download, the default in Safari on the Mac (macOS) is to expand the .gz files. This is very convenient, but it doesn't allow one to verify the hash of the originally downloaded file. One way to do it is to turn off that default and re-download the file, and then run shasum on the downloaded .gz file. Kind of a waste of a 1GB of data, though. Many folks don't have or cannot afford "unlimited" data.
Maybe a note on the page explaining to Mac users how to get around this? For instance, use Edge or Chrome rather than Safari for the download.
Or, prior to downloading, open the Preferences in Safari (by pressing Cmd-comma) and un-checking the 'Open "safe" files after downloading' option in the "General" tab.
Yes, I know this is a nitpick, and after decades of downloading files and checking hash sums, I have yet to run across a corrupted file. But, we all know it can happen.
I think most users are likely to say "ah screw it" and just go ahead with the downloaded file. Thereby putting themselves at risk for something that is intended to provide security! (decrease risk)
Thus, it would be nice to put a note in the docs explaining the above.
thanks
Updated by Jim Pingle about 2 years ago
- Status changed from New to Closed
- Assignee set to Jim Pingle
- % Done changed from 0 to 100
I added a warning on https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/install/download-installer-image.html in two places -- once before downloading and again in the validation section.
I didn't go through putting the exact location of the Safari setting in since that's a bit out of scope, we'd have to keep track of that setting and make sure it's always up-to-date in the future since Safari might change its location or wording. Users who are that concerned can find it on their own once they know it exists.