SoftRAID 6 Removes Valid License, Indicates Free Trial Expired

Is there any other software that is installed in the two days? is it always exactly two days? or approximate? this seems like a strange bug. Does Clean My Mac have a periodic clean cycle, perhaps?

Save a SoftRAID Tech supprot file, while it is working.

Next time it happens, save another SoftRAID tech support file and attach both. It could be a very helpful clue to find out what is going wrong.

No other software installed within the two days.  Two days may be approximate, since I tend to use that machine every other day.  So, it may be possible that it occurs after only one day.  CleanMyMac does not have a periodic clean; it is manually initiated, and I only did that once just to check if it helped.

I will repeat the process again and capture the tech support file when I see that it removes the license.

@davidk

What makes sense to me is every restart.

Yesterday, after rebooting in the morning, the license was gone and the "Free period expired" message was present.  This morning, when I was prepared to reinstall everything and generate the tech report, it now shows the valid license.  This is the first time this has happened.  

So, I guess I will take a snapshot report now, then wait until the license disappears, and then take another snapshot. I am hoping that somehow this issue has "auto-resolved" itself, but I guess I will find out next week. 

@davidk

that is exactly what will be most helpful.

Can you also run this command in terminal:
ls -als /Library/Application\ Support/SoftRAID

Copy the output and paste it here.

Here s the output from the ls command:

total 2176
0 drwxrwxr-x 10 root admin 320 Jun 11 07:18 .
0 drwxr-xr-x 41 root admin 1312 Jun 8 09:59 ..
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 496 Jun 11 07:18 ActivationMode.plist
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 david admin 946 Jun 10 18:46 ComputerStatistics.plist
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 182 Jun 10 07:59 DiskStateCache.xml
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 david admin 380 Jun 10 18:46 DiskStatistics.plist
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 1748 Jun 8 10:00 DriverPreferences.plist
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 230 Jun 8 09:59 EnclosureRegistrationDictionary.plist
8 -rw-r--r-- 1 root admin 490 Jun 8 09:59 MonitorExclusionList.plist
2120 -rwsr-xr-x 1 root admin 1084448 Jun 8 09:59 SoftRAIDTool

Save a copy of the "activationmode" plist. When your serial number is lost, save it again (rename one). Send both of those also. You will need to rename them to .txt, to post.

thanks!

Update:  I did a un/re-install this morning.  Now, there seems to be a problem with the loading of the kernel extension.  The kernel extension appears to load during the initial installation, but then fails to load after reboot.  BTW, this machine was just upgraded to MacOS 11.4. We are still not sure whether the license removal issue will still happen.  So far, the license does NOT go away after rebooting ... only now, the kernel extension just does not load after rebooting (we must manually load it). 

Also, going back to MacOS 11.3 is no longer an option for us.

Attached is the keystroke history of the ordeal this morning.

@davidk

Sorry this is painful, we are working with Apple to try to get a resolution. Nothing yet.

Well, it turns out that the 2-day license removal is an actual thing.  To recap, I did a complete un/re-install last Saturday.  Everything works fine as long as we manually load the kernel extension after any reboot.  On Sunday, I checked again, and the license was still active, everything still working fine.  Today (Monday), upon reboot in the morning, the license is now gone and we are back to the original posted problem of "Free Trial Expired".  So now we must go through the whole un/re-install procedure to get everything working again ... and repeat this every other day.

Attached are the before and after activationmode files, which appear to be identical.

Just to be absolutely clear, yes, we rebooted several times on Sunday, and everything was still good.  The license only disappeared upon Monday morning's reboot.

@davidk

This is perfect, it should help resolve this. Let me research it. (and how long a solution may take) I think the fix may not be until 6.1, however.

Just updating what has happened all week.  Basically, the License Removal is like clockwork.

To recap:  Last Saturday, we did a complete un/re-install of the SoftRAID.  And, after every reboot, we must manually load the kernel extension.  And, every other day we must re-activate the license as well.  So, we had to re-activate the license on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (today), and will have to continue doing this until fixed.  However, it is not so bad, since we don't have to do any more un/re-install.  Other than this, the RAID functionality works fine with the latest MacOS (11.4).

@davidk

I have a bug report written up, obviously this is our bug, but I have not had another complaint with the exact issue, there is a semi-related bug where the license is not accepted, but not one where an accepted license gets "lost" every couple days.