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

I have forget to tell, I did this too. No any satisfaction. Restart... kernel panic, chime... restart... Turn off the raid and the mini ready to work, but without the Raid!

@zoli

Until we get a solution, the only advice I can offer is remove one disk in the RAID before connecting it to the Mini.

We arranged to but a users system, we are waiting for everything to be swapped, which should be very soon now, the order from Apple is due to arrive shortly.

The crashing computer needs to be brought to Apple engineering, it appears to be an M1 issue.

Thanks.... anyway.

@zoli

Lets hope we can get a quick resolution from Apple engineering.

@softraid-support

Where do I send the report to? What email address?

I was using Softraid 6.1 and doing my best not to restart because when I did the system flat out would not load. It would ask me for my login pass as normal, then instead of the start up line showing extensions loading etc, things working... it'd simply go to a black screen with a folder with a ? in the middle as I said before, with the url apple.com/support under the folder.

If I unplug the drives outright, it restarts fine. Then I'd plug in the drives and I'd at very least have access to my drives.

I got a notice saying 6.2 had been released so I updated. I am still using Big Sur 11.6 but I thought perhaps 16.2 fixes the issues I was having.

Of course it tells me it needs to restart so I try, same thing.. folder with ?

I unplug drives... restart again. It updates the extension/driver for the new version. In privacy tab it tells me "System software from developer "Other World Computing" has been updated. I click ALLOW and it tells me it needs to restart. I click restart. No drives plugged in keep in mind..  the system restarts. I plug in my drives. They do not mount. I start Softraid 6.2 (licensed version of course), the drives still are not mounting. They are showing up as no errors, unmounted in Softraid 6.2. I go back to privacy in settings to see if by chance it's giving me that notice still...it is.nSo yet again, I click ALLOW and allow it to reboot. Drives are attached. 

Once again... won't start. I get folder with ?

Now before you think.. okay, a fresh Big Sur install is needed... This *is* a fresh install. I did a full reinstall of Big Sur and everything 3 weeks back. I've had the issues since then, with the drives not loading but the work around for 6.1 was unplug drives, start, plug in drives... at least then softraid worked and the drives mounted. If I had to restart I'd get the folder with ? though.

So now with softraid 6.2... drives unplugged, I restart... permissions keep asking me for ALLOW so I do so, it restarts and restarts fine but it continually tells me the software has changed and asks me to ALLOW which of course, means restart and that means groundhog day starts again. 6.2 seems more buggy than 6.1 did which of course, not ideal. I have not updated to Monterey because in the past, using the latest software led to many, many more issues with softraid.

As you can see you are listed as an identified developer. I don't have many extensions.

The error from terminal where I ask it to sudo kmulti load -p the softraid text tells me this:  \Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=27 "Extension with identifiers com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences." UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Extension with identifiers com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID not approved to load. Please approve using System Preferences.}

So yes, frustrated. I can't see what the issue is. Do I have too many of your products? LOL I have two thunderflex 8, one has an internal accelsior 8tb, one has the internal 16tb ssd set up from you guys and one has an external thunderblade 8tb plugged in. When starting, MacOS is skipping it's own HD, looking to your drives for the macos system, and after not finding it it stalls with the folder with the ? where as I'd assume it should go back to the internal main drive. 

Yes I have reset my pram, smc etc, it's not any of those and yet again, new install so no system junk is in play here.

I'd have phoned you guys if I thought it was an option. Where do I email you this report?

@jd1

You can attach the support file and I will get it.

In the last screen capture, you see the "Allow" option. Did you unlock the pane, then click Allow?

This almost appears as if the 6.0 driver is loading that the extensions cache is not being updated with the 6.1 (or 6.2) driver.

You can confirm next time you restart and connect your drives by pasting this at the terminal command line:

sudo kextstat -b com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID

Based on your description, I suspect it will show 6.0, not 6.2.

@rdieringer

Question on launching SoftRAID:

I was asked to find out:

When you launch SoftRAID, does it get far enough to present the password window, or does it start to launch and then immediately quit?

@softraid-support

When softraid quits immediately on my internal volume, the main window appears only for a second or two - not enough time for any dialog requesting password to install the helper. Strangely enough, when I created another volume on that drive and installed the OS, softraid now runs, with driver loaded. That got me to my raid, which I was then able to convert to an Apple raid. That mounts now when I boot from my primary (external) volume. The softraid driver still doesn't load on the external boot.

@rdieringer

I am waiting for info from an engineer on your app crashing.

I still don't understand why the driver is not loading on the other system. researching it still.

@softraid-support

I of course needed to work and was unable to wait for a response so I upgraded to Monterey, hoping my glitch in Softraid 6.2 stopping drives from mounting had something to do with Big Sur, because I was not updated to the newest OS.

I updated to Monterey, drives not plugged in. Restarted in Monterey, drives not plugged in. All working. I plug in drives and launch Softraid 6.2, and they once again mount as they should. I wrongly then assume the issue is resolved, and I try to restart and once again.. it shows my login screen, I enter my pass.. it thinks for five seconds and then goes to a black page with a flashing folder with a ? which of course means there is no start up disk... except of course, there is and it's set. If I unplug the softraid drives, it starts fine.

I tried to add a small video showing the time delay and then what it does. i rtesized it down to 7mb, but it's an .mp4 file and I guess not allowed.

Question.. in the past there was a needed start up option for softraid shut off if you have an Intel Mac with t2 chip. 

I'm looking through logs trying to see where/why when restarting it goes to folder with? - problem being, not sure which log this would be presented in. I did notice though "System Integrity Protection: disabled" - would that possibly be the issue?

I attached two support files, the first has the owc drives not plugged in, the second has them plugged in.

thanks for your help

@softraid-support

I did a small test and found some interesting results, possibly it helps in figuring this out.

I have several OWC products plugged as I had said before.

1. Thunderflex8 112tb - direct to 2019 Mac Pro.

2. Thunderblade 8tb - plugged into #1 Thunderflex8

3. Thunderflex8 88tb with 16tb SSD - direct to Mac Pro

4. Accelsior 4M2 8tb SSD card mounted inside #3 Thunderflex8

So these take up two thunderbolt spots in the back on my mac Pro, I made sure they are not sharing the same bus etc.

If I start with all connected, I get the folder with flashing question mark meaning. no start up disk.

If I unplug all and start, the system boots up.

So with nothing plugged in... I started to try some basic deductive reasoning.

If I plug in #1 (The Thunderflex8 with a thunderblade 8 sitting on top of it, plugged into the back of it via thunderbolt), the system will not start. I get the flashing ?

If I unplug the #2 thunderblade from the back of the #1 thunderflex8 and try again, the system boots using softraid 6.2 and it shows my drive properly, no errors. I am then able to plug in the thunderblade if I chose and it mounts. If I then try to restart, with #1 and #2 plugged in, the system will not restart, instead giving me the flashing ?

If I try to start with just the #2 thunderblade plugged in, no thunderflex8 units.. the system will start.

So then I kept going, shutting down, unplug all the items.

Now I plug in just #3 thunderflex8 with 88 HDD and 16tb SSD and additional internal accelsior 4M2 card. The system starts as expected, and mounts the drives properly.

At anytime when the system is running, I am able to plug in drives and Softraid shows them, mounts the other thunderflex8, thunderblade etc.  If I restart though with all plugged in, it gives the flashing ?

So..

I have multiple licenses for my OWC products of course. When setting up it asked me for one license, I entered one license. It currently says Softraid XT license activated. A little down it lists the option to purchase additional seats. Would I chose this and enter my other licenses?

As it is, I can't start #1 thunderflex8 with #2 thunderblade 8tb plugged into it as I was able to to do in the past without issue. I also cannot have all my OWC units connected and restart so it sort of seems that it's a licensing issue? When one item is plugged in, ie #3 thunderflex8 with the internal accelsior card, it only wants once license because it's mounted via pcie so I *think* the system recognizes it as one complete unit.

thunderflex8: one license | one thunderbolt cable = start up works.

thunderflex8: internal accelsior 4M2 pcie card = one license | one thunderbolt cable = start up works.

thunderflex8: external thunderblade 8tb card = one license | two thunderbolt cable = start up fails.

All plugged in: start up fails.

Any one item plugged in, works. Thunderflex8 with internal accelsior + thunderflex8 with 16tb ssd plugged = fail. Add the thunderblade to all on start up, also fail. Try thunderflex8 with 88tb and 16tb ssd and plug thunderblade into that and start up fails.

This help any?

@softraid-support

Forgot to attach this.. this was from 6.1 mind you but maybe it helps

@jd1

The SIP should be enabled. Start in internet recovery mode and enter this into terminal:

csrutil enable

Which will turn it on.

That was a bug in Catalina only.

Try this, go to System Preferences/Startup disk and deselect and reselect your startup volume as startup. (if you only have one startup volume, you won't be able to deselect)

See if that changes anything. I have not heard of this bug before. It is a macOS issue of some kind.

Your Flex8 does not have a clone of a System on it, does it?

@jd1

BTW: this is not a licensing issue. You only need one license per computer, it is not based on enclosures.

@jd1

Another thing to try:
I think you indicate that one Flex8 allows booting the other does not.

If you swap the drives from 1 to the other, I bet the problem follows the drives. which means there is something on the drives trying to boot, perhaps. I don't know yet. But that would be a validating test. There is no problem moving drives between enclosures.