  torsocks wget https://apt.benthetechguy.net/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg -O /usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg
  echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/benthetechguy-archive-keyring.gpg] tor://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm non-free" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/benthetechguy.list
  apt update
  apt install makemkv

apt update yields:

Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Ign:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
Err:9 tor+https://apt.benthetechguy.net/debian bookworm InRelease
  Connection failed [IP: 127.0.0.1 9050]

Turns out apt.benthetechguy.net is jailed in Cloudflare. And apparently the code is not developed out in the open -- there is no public code repo or even a bug tracker. Even the forums are a bit exclusive (registration on a particular host is required and disposable email addresses are refused). There is no makemkv IRC channel (according to netsplit.de).

There is a blurb somewhere that the author is looking to get MakeMKV into the official Debian repos and is looking for a sponsor (someone with a Debian account). But I wonder if this project would even qualify for the non-free category. Debian does not just take any non-free s/w.. it's more for drivers and the like.

Alternatives?

The reason I looked into #makemkv was that Handbrake essentially forces users into a long CPU-intensive transcoding process. It cannot simply rip the bits as they are. MakeMKV relieves us of transcoding at the same time as ripping. But getting it is a shit show.

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[–] ertai@programming.dev 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

OK I had the same problem as you and found the solution in dvdbackup + mkvtoolnix + some scripting glue + [optional step: ffmpeg/handbrake for transcoding]. My solution works but is not optimal but it works using only libre software. I'm writing a page on my website to document this libre dvd ripping setup, it is very much in progress but I will be improving it as I go, hence I prefer to point you to the page.

I had to dig around on the makemkv forum to find the source code: https://forum.makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=224 but I have no idea how recent that is and the developpers are only giving the minimum source out of obligation from the GPL. They litteraly wrote "GPL is cancer" in their source code. This, plus the fact that there was no clear link to the source code and that it's distributed as a tar (couldn't find a git repo) really stinks.

[–] evenwicht 2 points 1 week ago

Wow, thanks for the research and effort! I will be taking your approach for sure.