1.17.8 hangs when trying to read from brand new Asus SDW-06D2X

[whitenoise]

Hi there MakeMKV community!

Longtime user of the Windows version, switched to Linux out of MS frustration a few weeks back (been using Linux for years); bought a replacement Asus drive, brand new, connected it, built MakeMKV from source, inserted a blu-ray, started MakeMKV and it... hung at "Scanning for CD-Rom drives".

(This is on a registered, paid copy of MakeMKV, same key as I've been using on Windows for a few years).

Ejected the disk, cleared all makemkvcon processes, relaunched MakeMKV, it started fine, detected the drive, found all of its specs, all good.

Put a disc back in, restarted MakeMKV -- same hang.
Tried with Makemkvcon -- hangs at first line.

Disc itself opens up fine and can be navigated easily within file manager and command prompt (so Linux sees the /dev/sr0 device just fines and grants my user access to it just fine). Used the CD-Rom functionality of the drive to copy over 300+megs of data in the same session, so drive is just fine.

Which leaves me at : MakeMKV hangs with a blu-ray disc inserted in the drive, never terminating, leaving a hanging makemkvcon process behind.

I guess my first step would be debug logging on, or is there something else I can try to unblock it?