MacBook Pro M1 crash while Raid drive mounting (Softraid 6.0.5 and Mac OS 11.6)

@rustrx

Sticking with me is best.

One way that is awkward, but lets you use your system in the meantime, is removing one disk from the enclosure. Just make sure it is always the same disk!

There is some kind of setting in macOS. On the M1, there is no more "resetting PRAM" or NVRAM, to try to fix a settings issue. So I imagine, once this problem starts, the only solution is a clean install.

the user we are buying the system from also had a TB monitor, but it still happens with HDMI. I wonder if there is a connection there.

@softraid-support

I reached out to OWC support because of this new power issue - wanted to make sure it wasn’t a hardware problem caused by all the power cycling from these crashes. Must say that this new behavior has me paranoid for the integrity of my data but I will try pulling 1 of my disks again (I had previously done this and it did work).

Whats so confounding is that I can seemingly find some kind of combination of peripherals that seem to work fine, but then on a reboot it fails - almost as if the bug learned that a work around was discovered and then it kills that too! 

Just FYI I normally drive three displays, one over TB, one over HDMI and another one using a displaylink USB adapter, though that was one of the first things I disabled when troubleshooting, to no effect.

The fact that the drives were mounting ok w my latest test where everything worked with one HDMI display, only to fail when I plugged in the TB2 adapter and older Thunderbay unit makes me feel like there may be something going on there? Again, after the Big Sur > Monterey update (*not* a clean install) I had all three working - including with the tb2 adapter - but after the first restart, the issue came back. 

@rustrx

Its clearly a macOS bug somewhere, and most likely a preference setting. Nothing else makes sense the way it "comes back".

@softraid-support

Another update - now even with removing a disk from the array, I get the aforementioned power-cycling behavior which prevents it from even mounting or appearing in SoftRAID.

@rustrx

$%(*%

this is a first. Can you send me the panic report from this? I want to make sure it is the same crash.

@softraid-support

This latest development isn't resulting in a panic / crash. The thunderbays now just barely power on before they seem to get stuck in the loop I mentioned, doesn't even give them a chance to mount and crash the Mac. However when restarting in safe mode the drives spin up and power fine - obviously not mounting though. The thunderbays also power up fine on another, separate M1 MacBook Pro, though Softraid is not installed on that machine either. Considering installing SoftRAID just to see what would happen...

I posted my initial log and report in my first comment. Happy to provide anything else I can, if you need it.

@rustrx

I am guessing the "spin down" is a loss of Thunderbolt connectivity which is resetting the bus, causing the drives to spin down, then they spin up again. It makes some sense that it happened with multiple devices, perhaps there is not enough power on the Thunderbolt bus, although there should be plenty.

If you only connect one HDMI monitor and this Thunderbolt 2 enclosure, what happens?

@softraid-support

Yep you are correct, if I unplug the TB display and only use HDMI, the drives do spin up, mount and then give me the panic / crash. Note that this is completely new behavior - earlier the drives would mount with all displays connected (albeit still causing a crash). The drives also power on and spin up with all displays attached, in Safe Mode. I've attached the latest panic log, thanks!

@rustrx

It is still in the Thunderbolt controller: (DART)

Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
com.apple.driver.AppleT8020DART(1.0)[9FF1D94E-2019-3D8F-841B-0EB5A42591FE]@0xfffffe001d094540->0xfffffe001d09bff3
dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleARMPlatform(1.0.2)[478C7C28-E159-3083-A01D-1BBB61C10D35]@0xfffffe001c41e260->0xfffffe001c4669fb
dependency: com.apple.driver.IODARTFamily(1)[4918C962-3E77-37B9-BAF3-09A3AA7F82D9]@0xfffffe001da102d0->0xfffffe001da229af
com.apple.driver.AppleInterruptController(1.0d1)[18EE90CF-4C28-3A06-AB27-9CA5CA30D6BA]@0xfffffe001cc4e6b0->0xfffffe001cc51df3
dependency: com.apple.driver.AppleARMPlatform(1.0.2)[478C7C28-E159-3083-A01D-1BBB61C10D35]@0xfffffe001c41e260->0xfffffe001c4669fb

If you remove the other monitor instead, it still panics?

Does it panic/restart with zero monitors?

Willing to try upgrading to Monterey? (there is always a chance this panic was fixed, I have no knowledge either way)

@softraid-support

Still panics if I remove the HDMI and only use the TB display.

Still panics if I remove all displays.

And I had already updated to Monterey - I was the guy who updated to 12.0.1 on Tuesday this week. Upon first start, the Mac had mounted all three Thunderbays and was operating fine until I restarted the Mac on Wednesday, at which point the panics returned. So yeah, seems like a fresh install of Monterey did provide some success, but only until I restarted the machine, which put me back at square one.

@rustrx

Frustrating. I wish I could get this in our office, we have two M1's and neither will panic like this, regardless of what I connect to it.

I will redouble efforts this weekend. But I no longer have any Thunderbay monitors.

@softraid-support

Is there anything else I can send you to help diagnose aside from the panic log?

Are you still waiting to get the user system in house for testing? My workstation is essentially a paperweight until I can get this issue resolved, so even if you wanted to get this in hand for testing, I would entertain that - but if you have one inbound, I'm guessing its not worth the effort?

Also - to be clear, the Thunderbolt connection goes to DisplayPort on the monitor side, its not USB-C / TB on both ends.

@rustrx

We should get the replacement system any day now, it is a custom order (it had the 10Gb Ethernet upgrade option, which apparently takes longer to get)

And your thunderbay causes the panic even with one disk removed, correct?

@softraid-support

Well no not necessarily - last week, removing one drive from the enclosure would allow it to mount and be used, that was confirmed under Big Sur and Monterey and SR 6.2. Now, unless I unplug the TB monitor, the drives will do the odd power cycling behavior and never get a chance to mount, even with 1 removed.

If I disconnect the TB monitor and only use my HDMI - leaving the Thunderbay as the sole TB device connected - and remove 1 drive, it does mount.

My specific outlier seems to be the weird power cycling behavior when plugging in the Thunderbay(s) while also having my other TB display connected, that really started randomly in the last day or so. Even though it was crashing, I was able to power the Thunderbay on. Now I can't even get that far without disconnecting the TB display or running in safe mode! 

@rustrx

Frustrating. It may take some time for us to figure this out. After we get a crashing system in house, (Probably not until next weekend), it may take some time to get Apple's attention on this, as we do not think this is something we can workaround, although we will try.