The future distribution of MVKToolNix GUI on macOS

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Hi folks,

I’ve noticed that the mkvtoolnix-app Homebrew cask is marked as deprecated as it (currently) fails Gatekeeper checks. We could fix that with my notarized app/image but by definition that’s a more restricted distribution than mkvtoolnix-app, so it would need to become an ‘mkvtoolnix-gui-arm’ cask or similar.

To me that feels like splintering off into distributing too many platform-specific options, but if I’ve got this right, when Apple drops Rosetta we’re going to need two binaries anyway: ‘mkvtoolnix-gui-arm’ and ‘mkvtoolnix-gui-intel’ (or similar). So maybe we could think about this now and get everything in place.

Unfortunately the only Intel Mac I own can’t go beyond Catalina (10.15) so I can’t create and notarize an Intel build of MKVToolNix GUI (which currently supports macOS 13.x and later).

I think we might be able to put together a plan for MKVToolNix GUI to survive beyond the retirement of Rosetta, and for ease of use Homebrew seems like a good choice for distribution, but for that we need notarized builds (so we get past Gatekeeper).

Any thoughts? I’m old and could well be just talking nonsense :rofl:

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A possible solution for your old Intel Mac is running OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

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Thanks @XeFire that is one fascinating rabbit hole :rofl:

As it happens I need to keep my Intel Mac running as is for other reasons, but I’ll poke around and see if there are any other hardware options, keeping OCLP in mind :+1:

I think the 2018 Mac Mini is the oldest Intel Mac that can run macOS 15 ‘clean’. The cheapest I’ve found on eBay so far is about £200, which might be a bit excessive for a hobby project.

I’ll keep looking :+1:

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