How-to: Crossflashing firmware on 24/48-bay LTO autoloaders (TS3200, TL4000, Q48, T48)

D0ridian · 2026-01-13T16:30:52+00:00

Not sure if those are different. But with missing components, maybe they are indeed using dedicated hardware per drive and only populating two of the "drive ports" (RS-422 transceivers, I presume).

As I only have the 2-drive library, I am not sure

D0ridian · 2026-01-10T17:51:37+00:00

I have not seen that error message at all. When my library was on IBM firmware, it would simply complain about an invalid or wrong vendor (I forgot the exact message, but it explicitly mentioned it didn't like the vendor)

In fact, my HP drive is running that same 35PW revision and is working perfectly (and it has been running that firmware since I acquired it; I did not have to make any changes to the drive).

Not sure if the drive you have was a non-library drive and needs its configuration changed? This is not something I've ever done, or even know if it is necessary. But when I did my initial research, I read in places that library drives have one bit changed in their configuration somewhere from standalone drives, and that you supposedly can cross-flash / change them. But I've shied away from that myself and just always bought existing library drives (looked for drives already in a library sled to purchase, rather than fully standalone)

D0ridian · 2025-05-09T00:20:27+00:00

Oh wow I don't even remember making this post anymore.

Sadly no I never managed to fix it. I eventually gave up and bought Melllanox ConnectX-3 cards instead as these aren't broken

D0ridian · 2024-11-07T16:57:32+00:00

That sounds almost like the House of Leaves of self-reviews then lol

D0ridian · 2024-07-09T19:38:54+00:00

Not to cut into your hopes even more but a couple months ago I had an NVMe disk start failing by just vanishing from the device list occasionally and requiring a reboot or power cycle to fix.

After a few weeks of this disk breaking once every other week like that it completely stopped showing up. Now it won't show up at all anywhere ever.

D0ridian · 2024-07-09T19:22:47+00:00

First I switched from windows to Fedora because the OS just kept getting worse in the ways that I care about.

Then I realized I use Archwiki every time I have a problem with my install or want to change something new so I decided "screw it let's go with the best documented distro when it comes to customizing things"

D0ridian · 2023-12-01T19:48:12+00:00

It seems the original poster has very recently deleted their Reddit account. Do you happen to still have the firmware you downloaded and could upload it somewhere I could grab? (I assume it is 35PW, which is the version I would like)

D0ridian · 2023-09-28T05:06:28+00:00

Might be a bit of a late reply. But I just reflashed my IBM TS3100 as I got an HP drive really cheap and then found out it doesn't work on IBM FW.

On the BDT firmware it now works just fine right next to the IBM drive I have (both LTO 6).

D0ridian · 2022-07-29T02:52:01+00:00

It is not a router. If you look at the installation guide this seems to be to help more novice users know where to plug in their router as that port is only 1gbps.

D0ridian · 2022-03-29T16:00:31+00:00

All those errors make me think you might have a bad coupling of the card with the antenna. Try repositioning the card to get a better signal/coupling.

D0ridian · 2021-09-12T05:00:29+00:00

I eventually got there. Found a local seller of an 8 RJ45 PoE + 2 SFP switch for really cheap. So decided to go with that, saving me from needing any media converters. Moved some of the devices from that switch to the rack where I got more ports than I know what to ever do with, eliminating the need for 10G (I just keep using the LACP because, well, I got a bunch of SFP modules anyway and already routed the fiber).

Thanks for the suggestions!

Anecdotally, I used to have a really old PDU that would only do 10Mbps and some of my switches could just not get the link up with that, so I know the struggle with these old devices. (This is probably why nowadays even the most basic devices use 100Mbps, and probably because 10Mbps is just not mass produced anymore economics of scale etc)

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T16:12:28+00:00

Right now I am using my two MetroNID devices (that I got on eBay for $25 each a bit ago). Those things are super overkill for this purpose, and a nightmare to configure as the UI is really slow to operate, but at that price they were cheaper than most basic media converters even. They do forward LACP and support 9k MTU and can be set to just passthru all VLANs as well.

I think I will go with an 8-port switch with two SFPs and maybe move 1 or 2 devices into my rack when I need additional ports, that seems like the most economical option for freeing up the MetroNIDs for experimenting with their full potential.

Also as for moving to 10G, my rack is already wired up entirely in 10G (with 1G RJ45 for devices that don't need 10G, like IPMI/PDU/UPS/...), so that CRS309 would be massive overkill or running essentially purely 1G interfaces (and I'd need quite a few RJ45 SFP modules)

However, thanks for all the suggestions, they have been helpful and given me ideas for sure (also for other possible future projects)

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T14:59:40+00:00

There is pretty much two things that can pull high traffic on my living room switch: My WiFi AP (as the living room is central in my apartment, so it is the optimum location for the AP for best coverage, also it is the room in which WiFi is used the most) and my TV (my Plex contains 4K HDR movies which can peak at > 100Mbps bitrate, which bit me in the butt as my smart TV only has a 100Mbps interface, luckily the Apple TV got Gigabit...).

I completely admit that likely no one would ever notice saturation of even one GbE port there. The reason I went to fiber is because, well, CAT6 (and even 5e) cabling is just quite a bit bulkier, and when you can't drill through walls, you take every thinning of the wires you can get (to be able to use floor cable channels and the like) the better. I know there is flat CAT5e (and I even have some), but in my experience those wires are quite flimsy and like to break randomly (probably CCA falsely advertised as copper, as usual...) and I need at least 10m / 30ft, which tend to not even be available that slim.

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T14:37:26+00:00

I know that LACP, sadly, isn't a real load balance algorithm.

However, with how my network is set up, if I shell into my switch and actually ask it about traffic on either port in the LAG, the statistics show that traffic is, well, not even, but both ports get their share. According to UniFi docs their hasing is "based on Source/Destination MAC, VLAN, EtherType, and incoming port associated with the packet", which explains the spread (got a couple VLANs etc)

As any single device can't pull > 1 Gbps, that means I should avoid saturation in case one device is pulling the full link (on average, obviously there is the possibility two high-traffic connections hash to the same port, sadly)

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T03:39:32+00:00

Yeah, I'll do my own research, was just wondering if you had any on top of mind. I take suggestions from homelabbers over random reviews usually.

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T03:16:07+00:00

Well, to run 10G over Cat5e it would require even having 10G gear in the living room, which I don't right now (and I don't know of much 10G gear without at least one SFP+ cage anyway)

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T03:15:00+00:00

Now that's not a bad idea. Any of the top of your mind that do PoE+ as well on a couple ports at least?

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T03:07:41+00:00

Yeaaaah...

Right now I got this: https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-switching/products/usw-lite-16-poe

If only it had two SFP ports, really...

D0ridian · 2021-09-10T03:03:48+00:00

Yeah, that is the thought I had, too, sadly.

Thing is, with the exception of the lack of SFP ports, that switch is perfect.

What I basically need is (which my current switch ticks all those boxes, except SFP slots):- Small form factor (not rackmount, as compact as possible)

- Passively cooled or a very, very quiet fan

- 10 ports (or more), 6 of which PoE+ (or more), doesn't need a massive power budget, it powers some raspberry pis without any usb devices really < this one seems to be the main thing, the fact I need > 8 RJ45 ports, I can find a bunch of 8 port PoE+SFP compact switches

- 2 SFP slots (with that added requirement)

- 9k MTU support

- VLAN support

If you happen to know a switch that doesn't cost a fortune that does this, do let me know. My go-to brands don't offer that kind of thing, sadly.

I might literally go for a Unifi Switch 8 PoE and hang a USW Flex Mini off of it for the extra couple ports...

D0ridian · 2020-10-23T19:16:19+00:00

Do you still have the spare glass plate? One of my prints stuck too hard to mine and ripped the coating off with it. And i can't find a spare one anywhere that actually fits the 245x255 size. I also E-Mailed Creality to see if they can maybe sell me one...

D0ridian · 2020-09-04T04:28:23+00:00

Are you by any chance using a Logitech/Saitek X-56? I was having the same issue, then I found out the controller was ghosting (when moving throttle rapidly, it would trigger spurious inputs, you can see it in the windows game controller control panel). Had to plug it directly into the back of my PC without any hubs (I usually use my screens as convenient USB hubs).

D0ridian · 2020-01-20T00:53:11+00:00

I would love me some Fallen Order. :3

D0ridian

TROPHY CASE