T2, Catalina, and hardware drivers - 02/10/20 06:56 PM
THE ACTORS:
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED:
- Catalina (observed in MacOS 10.15.3 but possibly any MacOS 10.15 version)
- A Mac with a T2 chip
- SoftRAID 5.8.2 update
- permit the App in System Preferences > Security because the registration has changed from SoftRAID to OWC ðŸ˜
- reboot the system
- the boot process hung, 😳
- …and all subsequent attempts to boot also hung, 😱
- reliably every time. 🤬
- Boot from the Recovery Drive (boot while holding ⌘R until the progress bar appears)
- Reinstall MacOS 10.15.3 ðŸ™
- Reboot to verify the system will boot 😀
- Boot from the Recovery Drive
- Launch Utilities from the Menu bar and turn Boot drive protection completely off (this could have been done in step 1, but I wanted to be sure the reinstall was working first)
- Boot from the regular boot drive
- Launch SoftRAID 5.8.2 and install driver
- Reboot to activate the newly installed driver ✌ï¸
WHAT I HAVE LEARNED:
- Apple's T2 chip in combination with APFS and Catalina's new organizational structure provides significant additional protection for the MacOS system and the "in the box" apps.
- These protections present a significant challenge for some application developers that may necessitate significant redesign
- Catalina may have a similar look and feel to previous versions of MacOS but under the hood the reorganization and restructure is very significant.
- The T2 chip functionality can be both a blessing and a curse
- Safety and security come at a price
- Next time I will be very sure to have a VERY RECENT clone before installing any new driver lest I end up having to go through the entire system download and install yet again. This is a lot faster using CCC's "full clone" or TinkerTool System's APFS > Copy