[Sticky] Big Sur on M1 machines and SoftRAID issues

@lennardsmith

Would you be willing to collect some data and (perhaps) allow Apple engineering to get in touch with you?

What we need is:

Does this happen only when you plug it in at startup? or also if you plug it in after boot?

Next crash, I need these:

System Profiler report (about this mac)

SoftRAID Tech Support file

System Diagnosis file (paste this into terminal.app ASAP after restart)

sudo sysdiagnose -f ~/Desktop/

We think we have someone in Apple engineering willing to look at these.

Post when you have it, you will need to get the data to me outside the forum, as the System Diagnose is often greater than 200MB.

I had once again the problem changing the connection of my Terramaster 5 bay to the MacMini from usb-c/usb-c to usb-c/usb3. And when this happens the raid is lost. Needs to be rebuild disabling SR and reformatting disks ir the system will be stuck in a loop of crashes at login. 

Switched to Apple's raid until problem is not solved but it's frustrating to be limited to raid 10 (2TB) instead of raid 5 (4TB).

I'm thanking Apple, of course, although in the past I thought was SR's fault but I know what odd policy is Apple doing about kernel ext's management.

If 11.5.2 changes the things, please let me know.

@majortom67

Can't you just change the cable back to USB C to C? The crashes should not destroy the RAID volume.

I do not know the status of this issue. I doubt Apple is going to fix it, as it is not in "standard" MacOS, but will investigate.

@softraid-support

Unfortunately the RAID is gone (but I'm keeping constantly a backup of it until the kext problem is fixed). No, I can't switch back to USB-c port as i need it for other purposes.

Thanks.

@majortom67

I will see if I can get any status on this issue.

@softraidsupport

Thanks. I did a test and I'm wondering if my problem is different as per this post:

https://forums.softraid.com/investigating-problems-with-disks/sr-and-wd-red-ssd-sata-sa500/#post-11213

@majortom67

There is a macOS issue with USB C to A cabling that affects SoftRAID RAID 4/5 volumes in particular. (kernel panic as soon as the volume tries to mount)

I do not think you are experiencing a WD issue, from what I know.

If you use this as RAID 0, all is OK? (with SoftRAID)

Surely happens also with Raid 10 (crash at mounting). Also went back to usbc/usbc and problems persist.

I would be glad to do many other tests but I'm afraid to break the Terramaster's disk sockets.

Thanks

Simon

@majortom67

RAID 10 is not a scenario with the issue causing crashing over USB.

How much data is on the volume? Can you erase and restore? Still happens?

Happens 100% when connecting? Waiting a few minutes after startup same thing?

Can you attach a support file?

I would also like to see the crash report. (get more details after "report to Apple") save it as txt and attach it.

On the volume I have 1,15 TB of data. Yes, I did erase ad restored but nothing changed. Crash happens while writing data to the RAID.

I'll attach a support file as far as I'll have some time to reply the problem.

Thanks.

@majortom67

Make sure you save a crash log also, as I need to see if there is a clear cause to the crash.

Yes, I'm aware of your needings but I'll need to work with the raid for a while and I'll manage with raid1 on rotational disks and usbc to usbc 

I'll then retry with SSDs with and without usbc to usb3.

Thanks.

@softraid-support yes you can..

@antonyrock Thanks.

Do you have another Big Sur computer (either intel or M1) that you can try to get a "core dump?" We still need one.

This requires:

2 comptuers, the M1 that crashes and another Big Sur or later OS install

Ethernet, either built in, or a Ethernet/Thunderbolt adapter, or a dock with Eithernet. Connect the two computers together.

The instructions for setting up to capture a core dump are not simple. YOu would use a PDF from Apple. We have another user trying to get the core dump, but I have not heard back. Let me know if you can set this up.

@softraidsupport

Can you please show me where I can get the instructions for capturing a "core dump" with Big Sur? I can do it either with a Mac Mini M1 (same as mine) or with an MBPro 13"/2018 in case the M1 will go sold as i hope. I also need to know what problem is needed to be dumped (sorry, I read about it in the past but I can't find it anymore). If I'm able to replicate it, of course.

By the way, back to my problems, I had a odd behaviour of SR setting up a RAID 10 in my Terramaster d5-300 w/5x WD RED SSD (using only 4, of course). There was no way to get the new volume to have a filesystem on it (either HFS+ or APFS) and no way to apply labels to the disks. As you told me there shuoldn't be problems to do this, I then dug further and rememberd that quality of the cables is very important (got problems in the past with any kind: USB-A to USB-A, TB2, HDMI ecc ecc) and I'm aware that "high quality" branded cables means nothing. I then changed my TB3-TB3 cable with one that looks thougher and everything worked fine. I then tried to create a RAID5 and is working fine. Sometimes, at startup (either the Mac or the RAID after the Mac is on) I get the message that 1 or more disks are missing but after a few seconds everthing is OK.

Simon