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Verify a release

Verify before using images

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Verify a release

Verify a downloaded release before writing its images to a cartridge or internal disk. Verification checks the release manifest signature and the length and SHA-256 of every listed artifact. Obtain the signer's public key through a trusted channel independent of the download.

On a workstation, build the verifier with make signing after bootstrap. On FDS, fds-release is included in the base system and recovery.

Verify before using images

Obtain the signer's public key through a channel you already trust, or compare its fingerprint against a separately authenticated value. A public key included beside an untrusted download does not establish its identity by itself.

On FDS, including recovery:

fds-release verify /data/downloads/fds-release --key /data/keys/fds-release.pub

On the workstation, use the host executable instead:

target/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/fds-release verify \
  /path/to/release-directory --key /path/to/trusted-fds-release.pub

Signature verification is an explicit pre-installation step. It is not enforced by Pi firmware or stage0 during boot.

Success reports VERIFIED and identifies the release. Failure returns a nonzero exit code with an explanation. Keep files unchanged between verification and writing. Files absent from the signed manifest are outside its scope.

The cartridge writer separately checks image layout, destination identity and readback. Release verification does not install images; follow the USB-writing workflow or internal installation.

Release maintainers can find key creation, signing and format details in the developer reference.

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Maintained directly in the fds-os.wiki repository. Historical acceptance applies only to the source and artifacts identified in each record.