Add ability to manually set date inside of container to extend beta key

[dantheman213]

From the forum post: https://makemkv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20579

But I have to rip this disk NOW, and the beta key is expired! MakeMKV checks the key for expiration by comparing your system DATE when the program STARTS. It does NOT check it after that. What you do with that information is up to you.

Appears an ENV variable could be added to specify what the time should be set to inside of the container and the ability to turn off any time syncing features.

App is still in beta and between long versions occasionally keys expired. Additionally, payment methods that are friendly to everyone (e.g. PayPal) aren't available quite yet. This is a good interim option.

[dantheman213]

Did some research for manual fix -- looks like Docker doesn't have a way of allowing you to set the date or time independently of the host. However there is a project that may do the trick:

https://github.com/4Labs/docker-libfaketime

or

https://github.com/wolfcw/libfaketime

[dantheman213]

https://github.com/dantheman213/docker-makemkv/commit/c702d04c08a7127ce792e03845fe24e18b5ad224

I made a fork and got it to partially work. The container reports 1 year in the past when you enter date command.

However, MakeMKV still showed correct amount of "days left" in the About dialog.

Lots of these were in my MakeMKV container logs

[openbox] starting...
libfaketime: In ft_shm_init(), sem_open failed and recreation attempts failed: Permission denied
libfaketime: sem_name was /faketime_sem_2382, created locally: false

[jlesage]

Why not just adjust the host's time ?

[dantheman213]

Is that a serious suggestion?

[jlesage]

Yes... doesn't make sense ?

From what I read, you could adjust the time, start MakeMKV and then set back the clock to the correct value.

[dantheman213]

1. It's antithetical to Docker best practices / stateless design paradigm
2. It doesn't work for most people that have server or mission critical software, all software, apps, the entire OS will be affected by a time change. The change is too global. Why do this when there are solutions at hand that can be executed within the container only?

[imthisguymike]

@dantheman213 I had a different problem, that I didn't realize what was going on until the beta key expired. I paid for a license with MakeMKV (since I believe it's a great product and want to support the developer) and when I set up the docker container, I modified the settings.conf with my paid key. The issue was any time the container restarts, it overrode my key with the beta key, and it's now expired.

I was able to fix my issue, by adding the environmental variable "-e MAKEMKV_KEY=UNSET" and once the container started, I was able to again edit the settings.conf, put in my key, restart the container, and it works!

@jlesage I know you documented that environmental variable, but did you want to add some verbiage that makes it easier for those who have paid keys to set that variable and edit the settings.conf to put in their key?

[dantheman213]

I paid for a license with MakeMKV (since I believe it's a great product and want to support the developer)

@STiG-1 Agreed. I'd probably have a license already myself if the developer would broaden their payment methods.

But they accept it's beta and open and even in his own forum post discussed how to circumvent the license key check. So hey, seems like he's pretty relaxed about it all.

[jlesage]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that people buy a license when they cannot afford having MakeMKV not functioning during few days. Also, this periodic license expiration is what pushes some people to buy a license (to avoid the troubles) and thus support the developer... So is making the process too easy the right thing to do ?

[jlesage]

@STiG-1, I will try to clarify the documentation.

[dantheman213]

As shared above the developer himself explicitly stated how to circumvent it. It's trivial to do as you said yourself. This feature request is just to isolate the time change in the container.

[bamsnow]

@dantheman213 I had a different problem, that I didn't realize what was going on until the beta key expired. I paid for a license with MakeMKV (since I believe it's a great product and want to support the developer) and when I set up the docker container, I modified the settings.conf with my paid key. The issue was any time the container restarts, it overrode my key with the beta key, and it's now expired.

I was able to fix my issue, by adding the environmental variable "-e MAKEMKV_KEY=UNSET" and once the container started, I was able to again edit the settings.conf, put in my key, restart the container, and it works!

@jlesage I know you documented that environmental variable, but did you want to add some verbiage that makes it easier for those who have paid keys to set that variable and edit the settings.conf to put in their key?

Why not put the key in the "-e MAKEMKV_KEY=YourKeyHere" flag to avoid the issue you describe? I am not sure why you would put your key in settings.conf when you can insert when you call the docker instance.

[C4Wiz]

so you are gonna rob the developer of income because you don't like the payment method? Excuses....Excuses!!!!!!

if you don't wanna enter your card info buy a prepaid visa card....not rocket science here