Resolve doesn't use machine-id for DRM

[trafotin]

Hello,
I have run some extensive tests with DaVinci Resolve Studio and did a write up about it here and in a video essay: https://trafotin.com/v/davinci-resolve

I discovered by accident that Resolve requires a static MAC address in order to stay registered. Using a random MAC address will require you to re-register Resolve every time NetworkManager restarts or reconnects. There's probably a relationship with vendor OUIs so they can limit piracy, but not exactly sure. It's the only reliable reason why they require a static MAC.

As for machine-id, if you change your machine-id to something generic, it has no impact on Resolve at all.

Hope this helps.

[fat-tire]

Thanks for the insight/confirmation! I'm using a dongle so was never able to check.

A couple quick thoughts from your write-up:

• If you use the RESOLVE_BUILD_X264_ENCODER_PLUGIN=Y flag, you can automatically build the x264 plugin for use on non-NVidia systems (or for otherwise non-supported systems, which I think may include the free version?) I actually prefer it over the H264 output, it's comparable in speed for me, and I'm actually thinking of making this the default behavior as it's been working now for like 2 years. It git fetches & builds from latest x264 source, so (I think) optimizes for the processor you're actually running on.

• Apparently docker sets a unique MAC to each container, which can also be set with the --mac-address argument to the docker run command. I would think this would require root on podman, but apparently it works there too? I'll have to try that out. Regardless, perhaps there should be either a default MAC address set per container or a flag that could be set to override the default. Or is this too niche?

I haven't heard anyone complain about having to constantly re-register with every new ./build.sh, so I'm guessing that there's some MAC consistency between builds. If there's any call for it, someone let me know!

Thanks again,
ft

[fat-tire]

Oh I just found that there's a "convert to discussion" button, so I'm gonna convert this over if you have any further thoughts.

[trafotin]

The MAC address thing is related to the host system. The certificate signing business is restricted to the container. I actually used Distrobox and Fedora, but a friend shared this repo and I had already done the testing.

I'm working with some of the DaVinciBox people to get dGPUs sorted. I believe your script is also affected.