[Sticky] For those having problems installing the SoftRAID 6 driver

Running reduced security and the term “legacy kernel extension” implies that Apple have a newer recommended way of doing this. Will there be a way of avoiding this in future?

@bilbosoftraiduser

That is Apples plan  But it is a long ways away. There needs to be new driver kits, which do not exist yet.

Trying to install SoftRAID 6.0.5 on a MacPro6,1 running macOS 11.4 (20F71) using a OWC ThunderBay 4 

I have given "SoftRAID 6.0.5.app" has full disk access and ‘Other World Computing’ is allowed. 

Getting: SoftRAID error: The installation of the SoftRAID driver failed. The application will now quit.

Unix savvy, are there any debugs, show commands, etc… that I can use to help identify the issue?

@ncrodjones

My guess is kextstat did not return a reply.

If you run these two commands in terminal:

sudo kextcache -i /
sudo kextcache -system-caches

restart, then run this terminal command, what version of SoftRAID, if any, is loaded?

sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

@softraid-support

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 % sudo kextcache -i /

Password:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil install --volume-root / --check-rebuild

rebuilding local auxiliary collection

kmutil done

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 % sudo kextcache -system-caches

It looks like you're trying to update the system caches. As of macOS 11, the personality cache is no longer in use for keeping kext matching information up-to-date. For more information, see `man kmutil`.

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 % sudo kmutil showloaded | grep -i raid

No variant specified, falling back to release

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 % uptime

 8:36  up 7 mins, 3 users, load averages: 35.75 9.36 3.60

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 % sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

Password:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded --bundle-identifier com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

No variant specified, falling back to release

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

R@Mac-Pro SoftRAID 6.0.5 $

@ncrodjones

I sent the incorrect set of commands, it should have been (for Big Sur) :

sudo kmutil clear-staging
sudo kextcache -i /

But you have 6.0.5 loading now. Are your volumes mounting? I think you should be OK.

Just trying to get the driver to install. App quits on error. The only log entry I get iso out of system.log:

system.log:Jun  7 11:33:23 Mac-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.com.softraid.SoftRAID.157054.157061(501)> [901]

Total clean install of Big Sur (11.4). Running the "SoftRAID 6.0.5.app" from Applications to install driver. Getting: SoftRAID error: The installation of the SoftRAID driver failed. The application will now quit.

@ncrodjones

This could just be macOS not replying a success. Run this line in terminal (paste it in)

what is the output?

sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

@softraid-support

Same as what I pasted above:

R@Rods-Mac-Pro log % sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

Password:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded --bundle-identifier com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

No variant specified, falling back to release

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

R@Rods-Mac-Pro log % 

No Joy. It's not showing up. 

@ncrodjones

I thought this was a different issue, the driver is being blocked still.

When you did the driver update, did you go to System Preferences / Security to "Allow" OWC as an identified developer?

What is the output to this:

sudo kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

@softraid-support

I did "allow" it once. I haven't seen it pop pop again in security and privacy. 

R@Rods-Mac-Pro log % sudo kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

Password:

Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"

R@Rods-Mac-Pro ~ % cd /Library/Extensions/

R@Rods-Mac-Pro Extensions % ls -1

HighPointIOP.kext

HighPointRR.kext

OWC_SATA_Command.kext

OWC_SCSI_Device.kext

OWC_SCSI_Device_0E.kext

OWC_SMART_Library.plugin

R@Rods-Mac-Pro ~ % find / -name SoftRAID.kext 2> /dev/null

/System/Library/Templates/Data/Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

/System/Volumes/Data/System/Library/Templates/Data/Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

/System/Volumes/Data/Applications/SoftRAID 6.0.5/SoftRAID 6.0.5.app/Contents/Plugins/SoftRAID.kext

/Applications/SoftRAID 6.0.5/SoftRAID 6.0.5.app/Contents/Plugins/SoftRAID.kext

Can I copy it from one of these locations to "/Library/Extensions/" and load it manually ("sudo kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext")?

@ncrodjones

Big sur won't allow that it is more complex to install a driver.

If you "Uninstall SoftRAID", then restart and install SoftRAID's driver, the driver should be correctly installed. You should also get the option to "Allow" OWC as an identified developer, as macOS blocks all drivers by default now, until they are approved. Did you get that option when you reinstall the driver?

What is odd is even when Big Sur is blocking a driver, it should still be in /Library/Extensions, it just does not make it past the extensions cache to be loaded at startup.

@softraid-support

That didn't work. I deleted the app, reloaded, no prompt, OWC extensions still present.

Looking at: 

R@Rods-Mac-Pro log % cd  cd /Library/Extensions/

R@Rods-Mac-Pro Extensions % ls -1

HighPointIOP.kext

HighPointRR.kext

OWC_SATA_Command.kext

OWC_SCSI_Device.kext

OWC_SCSI_Device_0E.kext

OWC_SMART_Library.plugin

Those are all SoftRAID related, right? All the OWC*

Can I remove them:

1) Disable SIP

        csrutil disable

2) Reboot

3) Unload extensions:

        sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SATA_Command.kext

        sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SCSI_Device.kext

        sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SCSI_Device_0E.kext

        sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SMART_Library.plugin

4) Delete extensions:

        sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SATA_Command.kext

        sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SCSI_Device.kext

        sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SCSI_Device_0E.kext

        sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/OWC_SMART_Library.plugin

5) Enable SIP

        csrutil enable

6) Reboot

@ncrodjones

The application is not what you delete, just run SoftRAID and uninstall. It will remove all the OWC extensions, drivers and other files. Much easier. I use terminal to delete third party extensions as there may not be uninstallers available.

Try the disable SIP and install SoftRAID driver. Let us know.