[Sticky] Big Sur on M1 machines and SoftRAID issues

@softraid-support Unfortunately I have only one, and I will be stuck once Apple releases 11.2 officially, because I can not go back so easily. I attached a support file running 11.2 a little bit further up in my post from Jan 26, 2021 3:50 am. That is my system running 11.2 with the drive visible, driver installed, SoftRAID software running, but the drive not mounting.

@sunstarfire

A trick to learn then, which will help both of us. You can add a startup volume into your APFS container. APFS looks like a volume, but is somewhat different, so you can do things like add volumes inside your volume, and they share all space. So it only takes up 20-30GB, no more.

i.e, create a new volume on your internal disk using Disk Utility.

Apple gives the steps:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208891

Now startup in internet recovery mode. (Power button on an M1)

Choose install MacOS (or reinstall).

Select your new volume as the volume to install into.

Install Big Sur. I am not sure if you need to run the developer tool or not.

Upgrade to 11.2. Now you have two volumes, one clean install of 11.2 and the other is your working 11.1.

A simple option boot can select which one.

You need to Allow third party developers again, as this is a volume by volume restriction now.

I also recommend downloading a new SoftRAID beta from this volume. (avoids some Big Sur Security gottcha's.)

When you install SoftRAID, if you do not see the System Preferences dialog box pop up, let me know immediately. If you do not get that dialog box, the driver will not be installed correctly.

@softraid-support I will try this later today and let you know.

@softraid-support I'm having the same problem as @sunstarfire. "Kernel extension blocked" dialog box does not show and driver does not load correctly in 11.2. The app can see the volume but the OS can't mount it. Works fine in 11.1.

@woodstocknick

Thanks for posting the support file. I do not see a reason, but I need to understand this ASAP.

@softraid-support Had to do a clean reinstall. Erase volume group in recovery mode, installed 11.1, then upgraded to 11.2 RC. Downloaded a fresh copy of b48 and installed. No kernel extension dialog box. Which results in the usual problem. Drive is being seen in Softraid, but does not mount and cannot be mounted.

BTW Softraid still knows I only have 28 days left in the beta... So there must be something somewhere. And, before I forget. Softraid Monitor is still not working.

@softraid-support OK, I just did another reinstall, this time without upgrading to 11.2RC. The install went normal.

• The system extension dialog box came up.
• I clicked on Allow and was asked to change system security. I did that, Softraid started, and the drive was visible but not mounted.
• I opened System Settings again, allowed the extension, this time it went through. After a restart, the drive was visible AND mounted.

Curious: During boot after allowing the system extension, the system rebooted while the bar was still showing. I do not find that reboot in the log file, though (no reason, to be exact)

So: It seems like the system extension dialog not coming up in 11.2 is the problem. Maybe the system does not see the system extension as valid in 11.2...

I got the RAID to show up but it won't mount.  I have right-clicked it selected mount and it reverts back to its unmounted state.  Is this a permissions or diver problem?  FNG, my apologies if I'm asking something that's been answered a million times.

@sunstarfire

There has to be a difference, as I did not see this. thanks for the details, I will run through this again.

@fixins13

Attach a support file and I can look.

Did you "Allow" OWC as an identified developer?

@softraid-support  I enabled "app store and identified developers."  If there's something I need to do beyond that, please let me know how to do give SR the necessary permissions. Or if I've made a mistake on my installation and need to remove and start over.  Really would like to get back to using my raid.  I've forgotten how much I dislike outboard USB drives.

@Fixins13 You need to shutdown your Mac and then start it in recovery mode, to lower system security.

If you have an M1 Mac, look here for instructions. Otherwise check this document.

These settings will allow the SoftRAID kernel extension to be installed. But it seems like you have the same problem as me. The system extension is not loaded.

During the first run of SoftRAID you should get two notifications. One will ask you to open System Settings to allow a blocked kernel extension. Once you allow that, the system should tell you to shutdown and lower system security. After you did that, you need to open System Settings again and allow the extension, otherwise it still won't work, the drive will not mount.

If during install the system extension popup did not show, then you probably have run int the same problem as me.

@softraid-support  How do I do that, please?  If there's a tutorial or a set of instructions to follow written somewhere, I happily follow them.

I need you to collect data for me, on this issue. I have been updating machines at the office, hoping to get one with this issue.

Please gather up the following: (from 11.2 where the driver is not loading)

1. SoftRAID Technical Support file

2. The SoftRAID.plist.info file (/Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext/Contents/info.plist

3. System Profiler from About this Mac

4. Apple System Diagnose file: Terminal, run this command: sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop/

5. the output to this command in Terminal: ls -l /Library/Extensions

6. Run this command in terminal and let me know what the output is: sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

Let me know when you have it. You will have to get it to me off line, as the sysdiagnose does contain personal information. (it is a complete set of settings/logs in your system.)

thanks!

@fixins13

Also make sure you did this:

https://support.apple.com/en-lk/guide/mac-help/mchl768f7291/mac

Select reduced security and enable this:
Select the “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers” checkbox to allow installation of software that uses legacy kernel extensions.

Then you must reinstall the SoftRAID driver. Click on the Startup volume in SoftRAID, and "reinstall SoftRAID driver".

Watch for the dialog box for System preferences, you must "Allow" OWC as an identified developer so the driver can load.