As with all things LTO, getting your drivers sorted out can be a bit of a hassle. Canister tries to help you as much as possible by detecting any missing drivers when LTO hardware is detected. These drivers are then downloaded to your Downloads folder and opened.

Each LTO machine requires these drivers to function properly:

• macFUSE

• LTFS

• ICU

Canister will also download an installer for Canister's Catalog functionality.

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Software Drivers

Which version you require for LTFS and ICU depends on your LTO drive brand. When Canister detects an LTO drive, it offers to download the required drivers for you:

Unfortunately, the LTO powers that be - IBM, HPE, and Quantum - do not properly sign their drivers for macOS. So starting in macOS Catalina, you'll see an alert that everything won't be installed automatically:

If you see this alert, right-click the installer, then click Open. This will allow you to install without triggering the warning. With Big Sur, this workaround became mandatory.

Hardware Drivers

Since Big Sur's release, Apple no longer ships drivers for Host Bus Adapters. HBAs are the intermediate devices between your Thunderbolt device and the LTO SCSI device. Every Thunderbolt LTO drive ships with one:

• Most brands, including recent mLogic units, use ATTO (Download)

• MagStor uses Areca

• Some brands might use SANPoint

Please contact your LTO manufacturer to get you up and running.

You have installed ATTO, but still your Mac isn't seeing your drive?

To be 100% sure your ATTO driver is running, try kextstat in Terminal. If you don't see any ATTO entry listed, you can load the driver manually:

sudo kextload /Library/Extensions/ATTOExpressSASHBA2.kext

ATTO HBA is up and running, but still no LTO?

If your ATTO shows in System Information's SAS panel, but no SCSI devices are listed, two things can be at hand:

• The LTO drive is switched off. mTapes have a power switch on the back, make sure it's on. Your LTO drive will show a green led when done with booting up.

• No green led, but an orange number is visible. Your LTO drive is in error mode. Check IBMs error list for issues, or reach out to your vendor.