[Sticky] SoftRAID driver not loading at startup in Big Sur - workaround in SoftRAID 6.1 beta

@rdieringer

Your app quitting is unique to me, I may need assistance on this, which may take a week, or more, because of programmer travelling.

@softraid-support

In attempts earlier in the week, I did remove those printer drivers to no effect.

@softraid-support

This is my system controller info. Would disabling SIP have an effect?

Model Identifier: Macmini9,1
Firmware Version: iBoot-7429.41.5
Boot UUID: 92AD555E-0B08-4FF4-947C-0CAB128692B4
Boot Policy:
Secure Boot: Reduced Security
System Integrity Protection: Enabled
Signed System Volume: Enabled
Kernel CTRR: Enabled
Boot Arguments Filtering: Enabled
Allow All Kernel Extensions: Yes
User Approved Privileged MDM Operations: No
DEP Approved Privileged MDM Operations: No

@rdieringer

Maybe that is a good desperado idea. There is a bug in 10.13, High Sierra, where often you need to disable SIP, install SoftRAID driver, then enable SIP again. Otherwise MacOS can't get past its own security measures.

While I don't  like the idea of disabling SIP permanently, disabling it to run SoftRAID, install the driver, then enable it again, might be a path worth trying.

do you know how? (csrutil disable, csrutil enable) in recovery mode)

I am not sure if you can with M1, however, I have not tried.

@softraid-support

Disabling SIP didn't change anything. FWIW, I notice when I launch the application, a red line flashes in the Volume tile so fast it can't be read. I did catch something about secondary drive. Maybe that shows in the support report. I'm including the latest...

@rdieringer

The SoftRAID UI is "real time", it was just spotting the disks. Not a problem.

Somehow your driver is still blocked.

If you "unistall all SoftRAID components" utilities menu.

restart, install teh driver and do not restart.

Instead, go to System preferences/Security/general.

the Option to "Allow" OWC never shows up?

One off, inexplicable problems are always the most challenging.

@softraid-support

I have done that maybe 10 times over the past week. I NEVER get the dialog to allow OWC. I've even tried unlocking System Prefs>Security before reinstalling the softraid components.

@rdieringer

Very strange, it is like the System Startup Security is not set.

Maybe lets try this. Try setting it off, then go back to it and set it on again. Maybe that is where this issue bug is.

@softraid-support

Well, this was different... I reset my system security to highest level, restarted and then booted again into recovery mode and reset again to allow jernals from identified developers. Restarted, removed all softraid components. Restarted and then tried to reinstall. Got a dialog that the OWC system extension couldn't be loaded because it needs to be updated by the developer. Never got the dialog in Preferences>Security to allow OWC and didn't get the softraid dialog to restart. I don't recall seeing that behavior before (but I've tried so many things it's hard to remember what all has happened). Later today I'll try to repeat these steps on my second boot drive.

@rdieringer

Get me the driver version in both /Extensions and /StagedExtensions

That is an interesting error.

When you type these two commands, what comes out?

sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

sudo kmutil load -p /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext

(Kextstat probably generates nothing, as it "failed to load"

With kextload, I am curious what the error is.

@softraid-support

You are correct about the Kextstat result. The load command gives this (I've seen this in all earlier runs of the command):

Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=71 "Could not find: Unable to get contents of boot kernel collection collection at /System/Volumes/Preboot/A8FB53E1-3280-412C-AA62-D97F3E3EF46A/boot/D258B9106F99DAF5400F3252B84D34A0EA1127014E881861FE4AADC3002C1F7D8F7BB20A619A63205AA87DF8D82093AA/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches/kernelcache" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Could not find: Unable to get contents of boot kernel collection collection at /System/Volumes/Preboot/A8FB53E1-3280-412C-AA62-D97F3E3EF46A/boot/D258B9106F99DAF5400F3252B84D34A0EA1127014E881861FE4AADC3002C1F7D8F7BB20A619A63205AA87DF8D82093AA/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches/kernelcache}

When I directly view Library>Extensions I see this (with version numbers obtained from Get Info)

OWC_SATA_Command.kext - 8.1.0b16
OWC_SCSI_Device_0E.kext - 1.1.0b16
OWC_SCSI_Device.kext - 1.1.0b16
OWC_SMART_Library.plugin - 1.1.0b16
SoftRAID.kext - 6.2

I'm also seeing the 6.2 SoftRAID.kext in Library>StagedExtensions>Library>Extensions

@rdieringer

I still cannot figure this out. I have compared your system profiler report with others who have SoftRAID's driver loading, and nothing stands out as significantly different that could cause your driver to not be loadable. Yet, it won't load.

The only thing I find for kmutil not working would be on an external drive, which is not the case here either.

An idea. What is listed in this file?

/Library/Apple/System/Library/Extensions/AppleKextExcludeList.kext/Contents/Info.plist

I apologize this is so difficult.

I do find softraid listed in the info.plist under OSKextSigExceptionHashList. I'm attaching that file. One thing I have noted in the error for the load command in terminal (/System/Volumes/Preboot/A8FB53E1-3280-412C-AA62-D97F3E3EF46A/boot/D258B9106F99DAF5400F3252B84D34A0EA1127014E881861FE4AADC3002C1F7D8F7BB20A619A63205AA87DF8D82093AA/System/Library/Caches/com.apple.kernelcaches/kernelcache) is that I can find only /System/Volumes/Preboot/A8FB53E1-3280-412C-AA62-D97F3E3EF46A/boot/ when I examine in Finder.

@rdieringer

This looks normal.

(Interesting Apple seemingly stores really old version numbers of most apps)

What was the last SoftRAID version that worked on this machine, or has no version ever worked?

@softraid-support

I had a 5.xxx version on my iMac running Mojave, which is no longer available. The first version on this machine was 6.1 and then 6.2b6 and now 6.2. None have worked.