SHA256 Checksum Mismatch for Raspberry Pi 5 ARM64 Image (same on two separate downloads, but mismatch to website)

Kali Linux Forums Kali Linux Troubleshooting
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Hi All,

I’m new to Kali and trying to work out what I’m doing wrong and/or what is going wrong.

What have you tried:

  • Downloaded kali-linux-2025.1a-raspberry-pi5-arm64.img.xz from the official Kali Linux ARM download page: Get Kali | Kali Linux.
  • Decompressed the .xz file using xz -d.
  • Calculated the SHA256 checksum of the resulting kali-linux-2025.1a-raspberry-pi5-arm64.img file using shasum -a 256.
  • Redownloaded the .xz file and repeated the decompression and checksum calculation.
  • Compared the calculated checksum with the one provided on the Kali Linux download page.

What is the error:

  • The SHA256 checksum calculated for the decompressed kali-linux-2025.1a-raspberry-pi5-arm64.img file does not match the checksum provided on the Kali Linux website.
  • Website checksum: 2b0649e45f8873323300019d6d30bb193575a5b898a43fc5bae9f2383db72836
  • Calculated checksum: d89e3737569e493202a90fbdcf3f4fb80ffda2b271796e3b9a8ae285e6e0321d
  • The two checksums are consistently different.

What device is this on:

  • iMac running macOS (Sonoma 14.7.4).
  • The Image is intended for a Raspberry Pi 5.

Additional Information:

  • I am a new Kali Linux user.
  • I would like to know if I’m doing something wrong, if the checksum on the website is incorrect, or if my downloaded file is corrupted.
  • I downloaded the file directly from the Kali website (Get Kali | Kali Linux), and not a mirror.

Thanks for any help!

2

Try to calculate the checksum from the exact file you downloaded, not the unzipped one

3

You’re right! Just done it - and that was the problem! I was calculating the checksum on the unzipped file. Thanks for your help!