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[Sticky] Big Sur on M1 machines and SoftRAID issues

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(@joemikeb)
Posts: 93
Member
 

@softraid-support

This morning both my regular boot image and my test boot image were showing errors on startup so to be sure everything was clean

  1. I erased my test volume
  2. Installed a clean copy of MacOS 11.1
  3. Downloaded and installed SoftRAID 6.0.1 b47
  4. rebooted
  5. authorized the Apple??? drivers in System Preferences > Security & Privacy
  6. booted the Recovery Drive and permitted 3d party extensions on the test volume and rebooted
  7. permitted the softRAID drivers in System Preferences > Security & Privacy and the extension cache was rebuilt
  8. rebooted
  9. received a System Extension Error saying the system extensions need to be rebuilt
  10. System Preferences > Security & Privacy indicates "System Software from Other World Computing has been updated — Allow"
  11. Clicking on Allow results in a reboot which got back to step 9 in an apparent endless loop.

In the meantime SoftRAID correct displays the array configuration but will not mount it.

The same loop is now occurring in the regular boot volume running MacOS 11.2 beta. 

______________

Make intentional errors —
Otherwise the Great Spirit
realizes you have fulfilled
your purpose on earth.

— Navajo saying

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 2:11 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

Do me a favor and try b43 and report back.

https://softraid.com/updates/SoftRAID%206.0.1%20b43.dmg

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 4:16 pm
(@joemikeb)
Posts: 93
Member
 

@softraid-support

SoftRAID Error

You are on a ac with Apple silicon.   SoftRAID does not yet

support Macs with this C{PU architecture

 

______________

Make intentional errors —
Otherwise the Great Spirit
realizes you have fulfilled
your purpose on earth.

— Navajo saying

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 5:36 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

@joemikeb

 

Au contraire! We are now shipping SoftRAID 6.0.1 b47, which supports the M1 processor. Despite a bug with RAID 1+0 and some issues with B47 and intel machines, it is going pretty well.

There are potentially still going to be driver install issues on occasion, but we will be adding online documentation and assistants to help users through the experience.

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 6:02 pm
(@joemikeb)
Posts: 93
Member
 

@softraid-support

That last was in response to an email I received asking me to install the b43 version and report back. I dutifully installed the b43 version and that is the response I expected and got. In the meantime, I have tried b43, b4 and b47 and although I can see the array it refuses to mount. As I mentioned in a previous message I have a neighbor with essentially the same setup: M1 mini, OWC TB4 hub, OWC TB2 Thunderbay mini with four 1TB HGST DRIVES configured RAID 5, encountering exactly the same results. The array simply refuses to mount. I have under instructions in this thread installed a clean test volume and the results are the same there. I have been a very satisfied customer of OWC and SoftRAID for many years and I have never had a complaint. Perhaps next time you will check the entire thread before responding.

______________

Make intentional errors —
Otherwise the Great Spirit
realizes you have fulfilled
your purpose on earth.

— Navajo saying

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 8:12 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

In long threads this forum is hard to manage, I am getting dozens of messages a day, and I am doing my best to keep up. Apologies for missing anything or slow responses, this is a challenging period. I did miss you were on M1 on the last post. B47 is what you should be using.

It is interesting that a clean install did not work. It should have.

Did you "Approve" OWC as a identified developer, in System preferences?

Either post a support file after an attempt, or let me know if the driver is loading. There are two ways to tell:

In the volume tile, is there a - by the "Disk Identifier"?

In the terminal ,if you run the command

kextstat

then search for softraid, is it listed or missing?

If the driver is there, or there is a Disk Identifier (disk6 for example) then this is a differrent problem. Especially on the forum, where I don't have a long thread to read (as you can notice it is not really threaded very well), I am unsure what you have done or checked. And with dozens of posts at a time all day, I am pressed for time.

Do you remember if in the clean install, whether there was a loaded driver? Is the clean system still on your system? IF so, can you post a support file from SoftRAID from that volume? I use mostly clean systems in the office and never saw a failure on a clean system yet.

 

thanks, and sorry for any confusion.

 
Posted : 22/12/2020 9:46 pm
(@joemikeb)
Posts: 93
Member
 

@softraid-support

My apologies to you for letting my own frustration color my response. my experience from several years supporting my own software systems in an industrial setting as well as a few years training Microsoft support technicians I can well appreciate the difficulty of keeping it all straight. 

Yes I still have the clean install but the information you were asking including the support file can be found in this previous post I would believe it was something unique to my system that was causing the problem, if it weren't for my friend with an identical configuration having the identical problem (we have wildly different software configurations). Personally I suspect the problem is related to one of the following:

  1. The OWC Thunderbolt4 hub
  2. The Apple TB3 to TB2 adapter
  3. The OWC TB2 Thunderbay mini

 

______________

Make intentional errors —
Otherwise the Great Spirit
realizes you have fulfilled
your purpose on earth.

— Navajo saying

 
Posted : 23/12/2020 11:16 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

@joemikeb

 

If the disks show up in the disks column of SoftRAID, it is not a hardware problem. If they are not showing up, then yes it is hardware. In your case, the disks are present but the driver is not loaded.

M1 has wildly different (extreme) security precautions. There are many ways that the driver can be blocked from loading.Most of the time, it is just System Preferences/Security that did not allow OWC. In this case, I think it is a bug, where an obsolete extension stops the creation of the extensions cache. Then the SoftRAID driver cannot load. If the driver is not loading, you will not see a "Disk Identifier" in the volumes tile adn if you run "Kextstat" in terminal, SoftRAID's driver will not be listed, despite being in the /Library/Extensions folder.

Back to your issue. In your case, most likely it is the printer drivers. that is why the Clean install is a surprise. So far, clean installs have worked. Attaach a support file from the clean system also, so i can check.

But if you "uninstall SoftRAID", then delete everything in the /Library/extensions folder, the driver does not load? If you send a new support file after doing that, and "reinstall SoftRAID driver", I can confirm. thanks!

 

 
Posted : 23/12/2020 12:25 pm
(@joemikeb)
Posts: 93
Member
 

@softraid-support

I will try to keep this short.

I erased my test volume and reinstalled macOS 11.1

Downloaded and installed a clean copy of SoftRAID 6.0.1 b47

Booted the Recovery Drive and set the volume permissions to allow third party developers

booted back to the Test version

Allowed the OWC update and rebooted

It was a double-boot and this appeared on the screen

Screen Shot 2020 12 23 at 12.57.36 PM

I ran the Tech Support Report

Tried a second time to install the drivers with the same results

Ran the Terminal commands and got...

Last login: Wed Dec 23 13:01:03 on console

joebailey@Joes-Mac-mini ~ % sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

Password:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded --bundle-identifier com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

No variant specified, falling back to release

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

joebailey@Joes-Mac-mini ~ % sudo kmutil clear-staging

clearing all staged extensions...

joebailey@Joes-Mac-mini ~ % sudo kextcache -i /

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil install --volume-root / --check-rebuild

Not rebuilding KC for arch: 'arm64e'

kmutil done

joebailey@Joes-Mac-mini ~ % 

 Uninstalled SoftRAID using the uninstall command,

Went into /Library/Extensions and deleted everything there

Rebooted

Opened SoftRAID 6.0.1 b47 and reinstalled driver.

Allowed the change in System Preferences > Security & Privacy

Rebooted and the following appeared

Screen Shot 2020 12 23 at 1.18.21 PM

 For what it is worth /Library/Extensions now contains

Screen Shot 2020 12 23 at 1.51.23 PM

and the console report is

joebailey@Joes-Mac-mini ~ % sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

Password:

Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil showloaded --bundle-identifier com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

No variant specified, falling back to release

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>

 I have gone through this entire routine twice on this test volume twice ormolu on its predecessor and several times on my regular boot volume with the same results. The driver refuses to load.

Where is this all going astray?

______________

Make intentional errors —
Otherwise the Great Spirit
realizes you have fulfilled
your purpose on earth.

— Navajo saying

 
Posted : 23/12/2020 2:57 pm
(@hikingwithcamera)
Posts: 11
Member
 

Hi, I still need to do some testing on this, but it seems that the beta version of Softraid combined with my OWC Mercury Elite Quad USB-C version causes a kernel panic when attached to my computer via the Caldigit Thunderbolt dock. I'm able to avoid that by direct connecting it to my MacBook Pro M1, but in the long term this is going to be a problem given the only 2 ports on my M1 MacBook. Have others encountered this issue? Is it something that's being looked into?

 
Posted : 25/12/2020 11:42 am
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

Needs to be investigated. I do not have a Cal Digit dock, but I believe they use the intel reference design, so it may replicate  with other docks. I will see if I can test this.

Can you get me a panic log from when this happens. Click more info or report, then select all, and paste it into text edit. I don't think you can post it, so email it, with a tech support file, to support at softraid.

thanks!

 
Posted : 25/12/2020 12:29 pm
(@hikingwithcamera)
Posts: 11
Member
 

@softraid-support will do. I did just replicate it when the RAID is plugged directly in, this time it was when I mounted a Samsung T7 Touch (authenticating with my fingerprint), and it happened. It only started after I installed SoftRaid, it was fine for days before with the Caldigit, so I think it may still be related to SoftRAID in some way, but perhaps you'll have a better sense with the panic log.

 
Posted : 25/12/2020 7:54 pm
(@m1macmini)
Posts: 13
Active Member
 

I am using SoftRaid on an M1 MacMini for a couple of days now with a Thunderbay Flex. The drive is connected directly to the MacMini, but I also have a Caldigit dock. I observed some instability of the system, and it appears whenever the system is "asleep". It will either kernel panic or a couple of times it showed up with a list of "drive disconnected" messages. The kernel dumps appear to have little in common from one to the next.

My next step is to uninstall Softraid and see if it still happens. Are there uninstall directions for the Beta somewhere? I have Beta 47 installed, but usually do not have the monitor running.

 

 

 

 

 
Posted : 25/12/2020 8:47 pm
(@softraid-support)
Posts: 8006
Member Admin
Topic starter
 

The Monitor is running, but the icon is not showing in the menu bar. We are aware of that.

(applies to both Hiking and MacMini)

Have you captured the crash logs? (Can you, if not) copy/paste the text into text edit files.

Let me know if you capture the crash logs.

 

Do you have a dock? what brand if so?

Hiking does it only happen with the Samsung t7 connected?

This post was modified 3 years ago by SoftRAID Support
 
Posted : 25/12/2020 11:27 pm
(@dmwfotos)
Posts: 11
Active Member
 

I've been trying to use the .47 beta to create RAID volumes on an M1 Mini without any luck.

The SSDs are a combination of VNMe and Micron SSDs. The process seems to go as it should then finishes with an error message. The RAID drive shows as built but will not mount.

 
Posted : 26/12/2020 11:51 am
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