This thread is for posts/discussions on your experience running Big Sur with SoftRAID.
Much of Big Sur is covered by Apple Developer non-disclosure, so please do not post anything that is not public information. (new features not announced, etc.)
The bundled SoftRAID default driver mounts volumes in Big Sur, but we need to update the SoftRAID Application/driver to manage SoftRAID volumes. We will offer a beta version of SoftRAID that supports Big Sur as soon as we can, possibly in July.
We would love to hear experiences at that time of any problems that you discover.
Notes:
The current beta is 6.0.1 b48 and b48 works on both intel and M1 Macs.
here is the permalink to the latest SoftRAID beta:
Read the release notes!
http://www.softraid.com/sr_beta
Make sure you "Approve" OWC as an Identified Developer in Security Preferences in MacOS when prompted.
To enable OWC as an identified Developer, open System Preferences/Security. Unlock the padlock, and click "Allow" for OWC. Also, click on "Privacy" pane and scroll down to Full Disk Access and drop the SoftRAID application into the window on the right.
If your volume is not mounting: The driver is probably not loading, or is blocked by Big Sur. A simple way to determine this is in the SoftRAID Application, there will be a Disk Identifier. If it has - next to it, the driver is not loading. This forum can help you with that. (There is a bug in Big Sur where obsolete or incompatible extensions prevent other extensions from loading, so you may need to clean out older extensions)
Which Beta version to use: the current beta, b48 is the current version. Do not use older beta's. We did have an issue where when adding M1 support, Big Sur/intel systems would not load the driver and users had to revert to b43. There is no longer a need to do that, and we cannot offer support to users with older beta versions.
M1 Mac users. We have another thread specifically for M1 systems, but note that before you can use any third party kernel extensions on the M1 Mac, you must enable third party applications. here is the Apple link with instructions:
https://support.apple.com/en-lk/guide/mac-help/mchl768f7291/mac
Select reduced security and enable this:
Select the “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers” checkbox to allow installation of software that uses legacy kernel extensions.
Forthcoming changes: There are a few more driver changes we need to make, but the 6.0.1 driver should be very stable. Next on the task list are features such as:
° Full APFS support in the user interface
° Changes to the SoftRAID User interface to accomodate APFS volumes
° Completing the RAID 6 code, so it is usable.
These changes will start coming in the next few beta versions
Now that macOS 11 Big Sur has been released to developers, how quickly will you be researching and testing its ability to use APFS formatted HDDs using SoftRAID? Lots of us have been waiting for this.
Yes, APFS support would be nice
Yes, New Mac Hardware (M1) would be nice.
But let's get real.
The existing facilities of SoftRaid which have been working for years, no longer work on the current version of MacOS.
That needs fixing by LAST THURSDAY
M1 support will be in the next 6.0 beta.
6.0 can create APFS volumes now. The 6.0 interface does not correctly display them, but APFS volumes work.
(Note: there is still no utility like Disk Warrior to repair APFS volumes. So it is doubly important to have all APFS volumes backed up!)
Encryption is not supported, we are waiting for Apple to fix a couple bugs in encrypted volumes. But we hope that will be soon.
@softraid-support TechTool Pro claims to be able to repair APFS drives. Is this not true?
We are working with Apple to resolve a couple important issues, particularly performance and encryption.
We will get blamed with the 50% performance drop from HFS, not Apple.
@softraid-support - Promise not to blame. Would love to be in on the SoftRaid 6 beta. I had it before. So I'm already familiar with it. Thanks!
So here's where I'm at with the imminent release of Big Sur, new Mac Hardware (announced yesterday) and your continued lack of movement on working versions of SoftRAID which support APFS and new MacOS:
- Your position of support stated here for new working versions of SoftRAID has been going on too long.
- I need working version of SoftRAID to migrate to the new OS. Until such a version is out, and proven I will not be able to upgrade. You are holding up the train of progress and have been doing so since APFS came out.
- SoftRAID 6 has been unworkable in Catalina and forward.
- I intend to look around for other solutions and sadly, leave reliance on OWC/SoftRAID to supply my need for a solution (be it Apple's own with whatever shortcomings, some other vendor who has a reliable solution, whichever).
- While you sell a number of great hardware products at OWC I've come to realize a severe shortcoming of yours in the area of software development. You guys at OWC have not been very forthcoming in new SoftRAID R&D since taking over the product. It's gone on for two years now. Kinda done here.
Have a nice day.
You had the SoftRAID 6 beta? then use the same link. Or to apply send an email to support at SoftRAID.
Is it right to assume that SoftRAID Pro 6.0 b37 is not the beta intended to install on Big Sur!!?!
@hkrogull Yes, I tried it and it's the same reaction as with 5.8.4. Does not work. Not unexpected considering it's so old.
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