macOS Big Sur - Volume Mounting Workaround

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  • Last Post 15 October 2020
Robert Bousfield posted this 30 September 2020

Hello,

As a temporary workaround (until Promise release an updated installer or Apple fixes the KEXT loading) Promise RAID volumes can be mounted at startup by using a manually created LaunchDaemon.

I had already installed the Promise Driver in a previous beta release so the required PromiseSTEX.kext  was already in place. You may need to do this.

I have tested the this on my Mac Pro with a Pegasus2 R4.

  • Text below entered into plain text editor (I used BBEdit)
  • Saved in /Library/LaunchDaemons with file name: com.promiseload.loader.plist (permissions set to 644)
  • Shut down Mac Pro.
  • Restarted Mac Pro
  • Expected RAID volumes mount when user logs on.
  • Tested with System Integrity Protection on and off.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.promiseload.loader</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/sbin/kextload</string>
        <string>/System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

 

Hope this is useful for those helping to test the latest macOS release. 

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Rick Squires posted this 30 September 2020

This is very helpful.  The alternative approach of running the Installer and force quitting it when its done works, but is a bit of a pain

Hopefully Apple will get their act together in some later version of the Big Sur beta

 

Thanks a gain

 

Hello,

As a temporary workaround (until Promise release an updated installer or Apple fixes the KEXT loading) Promise RAID volumes can be mounted at startup by using a manually created LaunchDaemon.

I had already installed the Promise Driver in a previous beta release so the required PromiseSTEX.kext  was already in place. You may need to do this.

I have tested the this on my Mac Pro with a Pegasus2 R4.

  • Text below entered into plain text editor (I used BBEdit)
  • Saved in /Library/LaunchDaemons with file name: com.promiseload.loader.plist (permissions set to 644)
  • Shut down Mac Pro.
  • Restarted Mac Pro
  • Expected RAID volumes mount when user logs on.
  • Tested with System Integrity Protection on and off.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/sbin</string>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.promiseload.loader</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/sbin/kextload</string>
        <string>/System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

 

Hope this is useful for those helping to test the latest macOS release. 

Rick Squires posted this 01 October 2020

I've tried this- put the plist in both /Library and /User/Library LaunchDaemons folders.  Doesnt work.  My workround is to put the installer into my Login Items llist and run it every time I log on. Then Force Quit the Installer. Takes a minute, but it is messy.  I'm using a Pegasus 3 R4, so maybe thats why it's not working..  I was disappointed as Beta 9 was supposed to fix this.  Having said that, I've run the Blackmagic speed tests and got essentially the same speeds I get under Mojave(I've not really opened the Catalina can of worms yet)

Robert Bousfield posted this 01 October 2020

Hi Rick,

Can I ask - is the PromiseSTEX.kext located in your /System/Library/Extensions folder?

 

Or is is in /Library/Extensions?

 

You may need to edit the script to point to the correct location on this line:

 

<string>/System/Library/Extensions/PromiseSTEX.kext</string>

 

I upgraded over a Catlina 10.5.7 install prior to testing this and the required KEXT on my machine was in the /System/Library area.

 

 

Looking at the installer for your device it looks like it puts the file in /Library/Extensions.

 

 

It looks like the same driver as for the R2 so I installed it, sure enough it puts files in /Library/Extensions

 

I modified the script and made sure the permissions were set as follows using a freeware app called batchmod:

 

Restarted and the RAID volumes mounted.

I would suggest the plist file does need to be in /Library/LaunchDaemons, not at the user account level.

Rob

Pieter Pretorius posted this 04 October 2020

This also doesn't work for my Promise Pegasus 3 R6.

The PromiseSTEX.kext file is actually in both locations I see.

 

Pieter.

 

Leo Kuhn posted this 06 October 2020

I have MacPro 2013 and a Pegasus2 R8.

After booting BigSur, the R8 does not appear.

But if I move the PromiseSTEX.kext to the desktop, and a few seconds later to the extensions folder, the volume appears.

Unfortunately my main user folder is on the R8, so that is not a usable solution.

Robert Bousfield posted this 15 October 2020

Since upgrading to Big Sur Beta 10 (20A5395g ) I think the Promise drivers are now being loaded as expected, i.e. without any workaround.

 

I have disabled my custom LaunchDaemon and restarted several times with the drives mounting as expected.

 

Can someone else verify this?

 

 

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