[Sticky] Big Sur on M1 machines and SoftRAID issues

@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!

@rikkitt That "System Extension Blocked" dialog box is a little devil. If you are in the groove, and clicking and installing, it is easily overlooked, clicked away or sent to the back, just to never be seen again. That is something Apple in my opinion has to improve, but oh well.... :) Happy all is working for you :)

Hi @rikkitt

After install of MacOS 11.3 beta 3 and reinstall of Softraid b53, I also didn't get a message to allow 3rd party extensions, although I knew to look in Security prefs to see if the Softraid extension needed to be allowed. Nothing was listed, so I assumed it was still allowed. Also, I made sure my System Security was still in "Reduced" state, which it was. So in my case, after installs & restarts, things just started working again.

In your case, you had a slightly different experience, so it's good that you kept trying. Glad your system is working again!

pruthe

@pruthe

For those with 11.2.3 issues with intel computers, I discovered another trick yesterday. If as Pruthe encountered, no dialog box, etc, it may be a kextcache problem. So run this command in terminal and restart, then reinstall the SoftRAID driver and see if that fixes this.

sudo kextcache -i /

@softraid-support 11.2(!!!!!!).3???

@sunstarfire

For intel. I updated the post.

@softraid-support ah. Sorry for the doubt :)

Hello. Does not work. I have a macbook pro 13 m1
BIG SUR 11.2.3

The Soft Raid app sees my Raid 5, but I can't log in to my RAID. The Macbook does not allow access to the data.
In the disk utility I have 4 different disks and not a raid.

ScreenShot:

https://yadi.sk/i/qd9cUGVfSPQsxQ

https://yadi.sk/i/DAuWBTrx1K9Efw

https://yadi.sk/i/4WYSc7-JMPkzyQ

Help plz. I need to work.

status unmounted :((

@sunstarfire I did all of this 3 times.. rezult- not mounted

@sunstarfire

• It should tell you that it needs to install the driver and that you need to allow system extensions from a third party developer.

does not offer to allow anything, but there is a message that the installation is blocked. In the security settings, you are not prompted to allow or add anything.

security to "Reduced" enable the two checkboxes.

Driver installed success 

https://yadi.sk/i/FQlVLE25xmfjDg

https://yadi.sk/i/4kNa_fIZ8-aMWA

DOes that mean you are working now?

@antonyrock You will need to get the 11.3 beta 3 from Developers area. But first of all uninstall SoftRaid from the app -this uninstall the driver-. Then drag and drop to bin the SoftRaid folder from Applications, and empty it. Search other folders as SoftRaid and also delete them.

Be sure you have changed the security and extensions allowed in system. (Press 10 seconds while booting up, then go to menu and Security access. Active or changed for no security and allow extensions)

After upgrading, reinstall SoftRaid and be care than you don't close the pop up window to allow extensions. You will need to reboot after installing the driver.