[Sticky] Running Big Sur (beta) on Intel Macs

@softraid-support

Here it is, thank you

Deleting all of my extensions except the OWC and softraid worked. I just wasn't sure if deleting any of the other extensions could cause problems elsewhere. It doesn't seem to be the case yet. 

@rrg

When I get it, I will deal with it. thanks!

You have several unsigned and potentially non Big Sur compatible extensions. That is probably causing the SoftRAID driver to be blocked (Big sur cannot add SoftRAID to the kernel extensions cache that loads at startup)

go to/Library/Extensions and delete these extensions:

RIMBBUSB

RIMBBUSB

JMicronATA

BJUSBload

Also delete:

com.wch.usbserial

com.epson.print.kext.USBPrintClass

Hightpoint (both)

PromiseSTEX

Then run the terminal.app and paste these two commands in:

sudo kmutil clear-staging

followed by:

sudo kextcache -i /

Restart.

Run SoftRAID, select your startup volume, then "reinstall SoftRAID driver".

Allow OWC as an Identified Developer when prompted, preferably before restarting.

Let me know if this works.

(you beat me to a reply! The Epson you may need to reload if you use it. Probably no more blackberry! I think these are leftover from prior installs.)

B48 now installed and working OK.

I used a program called 'AppCleaner' to remove all references to B43 first, before copying across and running B48. So far so good ;)

@softraid-support Please let me know if the support file wasn't received. I sent it yesterday but I didn't receive a confirmation (automated or otherwise).

@rrg

You can post a support file to the forum. If I did not respond, I did not get it. Did you email it to support? posting it is easier, I think, then it is on your thread.

I don' tthink I missed any emails, but its possible. When you post it, it will be easy to spot if I missed it, or a spam filter got it, or what!

@softraid-support For reasons of privacy I don’t like the idea of posting it in a public forum. Should I just file a normal support ticket, wait for a response, and then attach a report to that?

b43 is working for me but the clock is running out on that.

Certainly. Open a support case, I will get it, and can deal with you on fixing this.

Happy New Year Support!

WRT the "IO error upon restart" issue https://srforums.wpengine.com/forum/postid/6261/

I ran Verify on the disk in question twice.  Both times it said all sectors are readable and the disk is functioning normally.

I haven't had any sleep issues with monitor running and all notifications enabled since I stopped having open file handles on the RAID drives through a sleep.  It seems to only happen if something has files on the RAID open during a sleep/wake cycle.  Mostly it seems Parallels VM but could possibly be any file.

SoftRAID reports all disk errors, as it cannot know whether hardware caused or not.

I wonder if this is a directory issue. Do you have Disk Warrior? If so, run it to rebuild your directory. An error can come from a pointer in a non existent location on the disk, as an example. Since this is not common, it has to be local to your environment.

@softraid-support

Just for FYI (slightly off topic) - I was on B47 w/ Catalina and got the B47 mount issue. My Mini won't do BigSur.

In the Beta program for MacOS - got the notice of the Beta Security update for Catalina and applied.  Had the mount issue trigger following the update.  B48 cleared that right up.

Looking forward to RAID 6.  Did Hot Spare auto rebuild make the development list by any chance?

@bcg365

Thanks for the update.

Hot spares is an interesting topic. We are adding RAID 6 first/instead. Studies have shown no difference in longevity with disks that are high duty cycle vs light duty cycle (spares). So it makes more sense to have dual parity, than a hot spare. Its still being discussed.