DriverKit OSSystemExtensionErrorUnknown on activation

On macOS 10.15, if the user does the following:
  • install version 1 of an app to /Applications and activate an embedded driverkit system extension

  • copy a newer version 2 of the app & extensions to /Applications, overwriting the original

when the version 2 app tries to activate its updated extension, it gets the error OSSystemExtensionErrorUnknown. Furthermore the user can not delete the app, as the finder now hangs when it tries to deactivate the extensions - presumably because the copy has damaged the original installation. Similarly, "systemextensionctl uninstall" also hangs.

As far as I know, the only ways to recover are:
  • issue the shell command "systemextensionctl reset", which is a bit drastic

  • force-quit the Finder, reboot and then delete the app before reinstalling and running

Any suggestions as to how to work around this? I have tried to issue an explicit deactivation request from the updated app, but unsurprisingly this also fails with ErrorUnknown.
Answered by Frameworks Engineer in 666831022
This issue should be resolved in the latest release of macOS 11.3.
Accepted Answer
This issue should be resolved in the latest release of macOS 11.3.
Ok thanks - we will confirm this when the final 11.3 release is ready!
DriverKit OSSystemExtensionErrorUnknown on activation
 
 
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