[Sticky] Big Sur on M1 machines and SoftRAID issues

@sunstarfire

It does not fix the problem, no.

@drives

Spotlight indexes in the background. Let it sit means disable sleep for a day or two after enabling spotlight again, and let indexing work.

@softraid-support :(

@sunstarfire

Not only does it not fix the issue on M1, it may be creating problems for users on intel machines. I found an issue installing the driver on intel and am trying to isolate the cause. But that is not for this thread, which is M1. ;-)

@softraid-support So a clear advisory against using anything 11.2, for example if for some reason you wanted to get away from public betas. Right now, it seems like 11.3 Beta 3 is the only one where it works, post 11.1.

Finally working! Mac mini M1 + OWC Mercury thunderbolt 3 enclosures (over 100 enclosures waiting to be usable...)

After reducing security from MacOS, updated to 11.3 beta 3, and b52 re-installed again (not tested b53). The message for accepting extensions popped up! And the Raid 5 was mounted, two months later... 

THANK U! If anybody needs help do not hesitate to contact!

@ruben-salazar

Is that really mean there are 100 enclosures in your facility?

@softraid-support Yes, lots of Thunderbays 4u, 6u and 8u in several countries for cycling data. I opted for this tech!

On my Mac M1 Mini, I accidentally installed the MacOS 11.2.3 update over my 11.1 system, which broke access to my Softraid devices. I then installed the MacOS 11.3 beta 3 update, reinstalled Softraid b53, and now my Softraid devices are working again.

Thanks to all for the installation advice. Hopefully, the final MacOS 11.3 update will be out soon. :-)

@pruthe

Its also confusing what the 11.2.2 and 11.2.3 updates were for when 11.3 is in beta. And why this fix could not have been in the 11.2 updates. Guess we will never know!

@pruthe

Joined Big Our Beta, installed MacOS 11.3 beta, installed SoftRAID b53 but still shows unmounted thunder bay enclosure (RAID 10) and will not mount. Disappointing--was hoping from the latest posts that it would work. Is it related to RAID 10 (not sure if others have tested/been successful with it)?

Mac mini M1, 16GB RAM, single boot volume (internal SSD 1TB), Thunderbay enclosure with 24TB configured as 12TB via RAID 10. Has been working fine on 2012 Mac mini.

@RikkiTT You could try this:

• Make sure your MacOS installed Beta is Build 20E5196f or later (that is the 11.3 Beta 3)
• Start SoftRaid
• Go to the Utilities Menu and uninstall it from there. The system will ask you to restart.
• When you restart, follow this document (official Apple) and set the system security to "Reduced" and enable the two checkboxes
• System will then reboot.
• Drag the SoftRAID folder from /Applications to the bin.
• Empty the bin (always important when you delete stuff!!)
• Get a new install of SoftRAID from this website, install that, start it
• It should tell you that it needs to install the driver and that you need to allow system extensions from a third party developer.
• Click the button to open the Settings app
• click on the lock, enter your password
• Allow the system extension signed by OWC. That will install the necessary system extension.

That should do it. Give it a try. If it does not, there is something else going on, and you will have to wait for @softraid-support.

@sunstarfire

Pretty good help!

When the driver installs, a "System Preferenes" dialog box should pop up from macOS. It is easy to skip that, but it is very iportant you "Allow" OWC as an identified developer. It is a security mechanism in macOS that will otherwise block the driver.

One of the things to check is whether the driver is loaded. You can do this a few ways, one simple way is create a system report, click on extensions, sort by "obtained from", scroll to the bottom and see if SoftRAID is listed, and if it is loaded (it will show yes in the loaded column)

If SoftRAID is not present, the above instructions are helpful.

if SoftRAID is present, but not loaded, then it could be old (obsolete) extensions blocking the driver from loading. (A bug in Big Sur, I believe for obsolete extensions to block another from loading)

If SoftRAID is present, and loaded, then you may have an issue with the volume directory. In that case, in SoftRAID, you will see a "Disk Identifier" in the volumes tile, such as disk6.

Also, you need to make sure you enabled third party drivers to load!

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.

@sunstarfire That is! The "allow extension" step is the most important.

@softraid-support

@pruthe

Thank you both for the help! @pruthe instructions worked with one small caveat that may help others:

I never got the message that I need to allow third party extension--instead, it said it had been blocked, but never gave me a button to allow it or take me to security prefs. Then OWC reported "The driver was installed." Suspicious, I went to the security panel anyway and saw that it said the extension had been modified, and showed a button that said "allow" which was grayed out. I clicked the lock, unlocked with my password, and then clicked on the Allow button. 

The Mac then rebuilt extensions file/system for about 20 seconds, then rebooted. The Thunderbay enclosure cycled as if being read, then everything shut off and the Mac rebooted again. Once I was rebooted, the OWC window sat for a few seconds, empty, and then populated with the splash screen. I closed that, and the SoftRAID window (still open from last session) sat blank for about 3 seconds and POOF! My volumes all showed up and were mounted. I'm in business--thank you both for your help!