Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions - Big Sur Issues

RE: Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

SoftRAID Support — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 04:04:22 +0000

@jamski

the ! means the bundled driver is loading.

The latest SoftRAID release, 5.8.4, is not compatible with Big Sur. We will be doing public beta's until 6.0 is ready, which could take a couple months. New betas will be released as we go, and you will be auto notified through the SoftRAID Monitor.

here is the link to the beta: SoftRAID 6 https://www.softraid.com/sr_beta

Read the release notes!

Make sure you "Approve" OWC as an Identified Developer in Security Preferences in MacOS when prompted.

And give the SoftRAID Application "Full Disk Access".

RE: Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

jamski — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 19:32:26 +0000

@softraid-support So, I waited until the 2nd version of Big Sur (11.1) and I now have an "!" on my SoftRaid mounted drive. While I can still use the drive, I cannot launch SoftRAID 5.8.4.

Any update on the horizon?

RE: Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

SoftRAID Support — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 18:57:02 +0000

Officially, NEXT version (12.x?)

However, at the moment, but I do not have evidence whether this is a fix, or a bug, you can enable Secure Boot with 11.1 and it will allow the SoftRAID 6.0b43 driver to load.

We are trying to find out whether this is a permanent change, so we can announce it, or a temporary 11.1 bug, that will change in a future Big Sur release.

RE: Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

Endymion — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 17:55:35 +0000

@softraid-support

"The Secure Boot must remain disabled. this will probably change in the NEXT MacOS version."

Does NEXT MacOS version mean the next version of Big Sur or next years newly named OS version?

Thanks,

John

RE: Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

SoftRAID Support — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 02:28:12 +0000

OWC does not have an official position on whether users should update to Big Sur. I personally do, I would wait until the second release, let the worst bugs shake out.

the current SoftRAID 6.0 b42 beta is intel only. the next beta will have support for Apple Silicon.

the next two questions are Security questions. We do our best to prevent users from encountering them butit is difficult. I can summarize:

The Secure Boot must remain disabled. this will probably change in the NEXT MacOS version.

Full Disk Access must be manually enabled. We are probably going to build a helper tool, (such as Carbon Copy Cloner has) to help users get this done.

The "Allow" OWC as a approved devloper is a Apple security process. It is always going to be a necessary step. the problem is if the user just clicks "OK", rather than doing it, nothing happens and the driver can be blocked.

There are various other security mechanisms, such as when you copy the app from another machine, that can cause it to be blocked. We cannot avoid this.

MacOS puts security before user ease of use. We need to adapt, both as developers and as users. It is not going away.

Big Sur and SoftRaid... some questions

PAFER — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 18:33:24 +0000

Does OWC recommend installing Big Sur (today)?

Should we wait to upgrade to Big Sur?

I have read that there is a version of SoftRaid 6.0 Beta that works for Big Sur, but I have any more questions:

SoftRaid 6.0 Beta version is only for Mac's silicon CPU or it works on Intel Mac's ...

My configuration is:

MacBook Pro 16 '' i9 Intel

Thunderbay 4 Thunderbolt3: 4 X Toshiba HDD 10Tb

SoftRaid XT RAID 5

Will you fix SoftRaid - OWC T1 and privacy issues & Driver updates and runs and will upgrade fine in the next OS upgrades ??

Will SoftRaid and OWC certified app be compatible with Apple's security control panel and T1 when run on BigSur ??

Thanks in advance!