diff --git a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/BareosFdPluginLibcloud.py b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/BareosFdPluginLibcloud.py
index 3974d7e109f..fd44ae2fd08 100755
--- a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/BareosFdPluginLibcloud.py
+++ b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/BareosFdPluginLibcloud.py
@@ -23,7 +23,11 @@
 import BareosFdPluginBaseclass
 import bareosfd
 from bareosfd import *
-import ConfigParser as configparser
+
+try:
+    import ConfigParser as configparser
+except ImportError:
+    import configparser
 import datetime
 import dateutil.parser
 from bareos_libcloud_api.bucket_explorer import TASK_TYPE
@@ -45,6 +49,21 @@
 from sys import version_info
 from distutils.util import strtobool
 
+class StringCodec:
+    @staticmethod
+    def encode_for_backup(var):
+        if version_info.major < 3:
+            return var.encode("utf-8")
+        else:
+            return var
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def encode_for_restore(var):
+        if version_info.major < 3:
+            return var
+        else:
+            return var.encode("utf-8")
+
 
 class FilenameConverter:
     __pathprefix = "PYLIBCLOUD:/"
@@ -229,8 +248,7 @@ def start_backup_job(self):
             return bRC_Error
 
         jobmessage(
-            M_INFO,
-            "Connected, last backup: %s (ts: %s)" % (self.last_run, self.since),
+            M_INFO, "Connected, last backup: %s (ts: %s)" % (self.last_run, self.since),
         )
 
         try:
@@ -310,13 +328,13 @@ def start_backup_file(self, savepkt):
         debugmessage(100, "Backup file: %s" % (filename,))
 
         statp = bareosfd.StatPacket()
-#        statp.size = self.current_backup_task["size"]
-#        statp.mtime = self.current_backup_task["mtime"]
-#        statp.atime = 0
-#        statp.ctime = 0
+        # statp.size = self.current_backup_task["size"]
+        # statp.mtime = self.current_backup_task["mtime"]
+        # statp.atime = 0
+        # statp.ctime = 0
 
         savepkt.statp = statp
-        savepkt.fname = filename
+        savepkt.fname = StringCodec.encode_for_backup(filename)
         savepkt.type = FT_REG
 
         if self.current_backup_task["type"] == TASK_TYPE.DOWNLOADED:
@@ -357,7 +375,7 @@ def create_file(self, restorepkt):
             100, "create_file() entry point in Python called with %s\n" % (restorepkt)
         )
         FNAME = FilenameConverter.BackupToBucket(restorepkt.ofname)
-        dirname = os.path.dirname(FNAME)
+        dirname = StringCodec.encode_for_restore(os.path.dirname(FNAME))
         if not os.path.exists(dirname):
             jobmessage(M_INFO, "Directory %s does not exist, creating it\n" % dirname)
             os.makedirs(dirname)
@@ -371,7 +389,12 @@ def plugin_io(self, IOP):
         if IOP.func == IO_OPEN:
             # Only used by the 'restore' path
             if IOP.flags & (os.O_CREAT | os.O_WRONLY):
-                self.FILE = open(FilenameConverter.BackupToBucket(IOP.fname), "wb")
+                self.FILE = open(
+                    StringCodec.encode_for_restore(
+                        FilenameConverter.BackupToBucket(IOP.fname)
+                    ),
+                    "wb",
+                )
             return bRC_OK
 
         elif IOP.func == IO_READ:
diff --git a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/debug.py b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/debug.py
index deb143bc774..8ffbbd04eec 100644
--- a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/debug.py
+++ b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/debug.py
@@ -30,4 +30,9 @@ def jobmessage(message_type, message):
 
 def debugmessage(level, message):
     message = "BareosFdPluginLibcloud [%s]: %s\n" % (os.getpid(), message)
-    bareosfd.DebugMessage(level, message)
+    #bareosfd.DebugMessage(level, message)
+    #bareosfd.DebugMessage(level, message.encode("utf-8"))
+    try:
+        bareosfd.DebugMessage(level, message)
+    except UnicodeError:
+        bareosfd.DebugMessage(level, message.encode("utf-8"))
diff --git a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/process_base.py b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/process_base.py
index 0abe4247099..031399914f2 100644
--- a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/process_base.py
+++ b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/process_base.py
@@ -25,7 +25,11 @@
 from bareos_libcloud_api.queue_message import AbortMessage
 from bareos_libcloud_api.queue_message import DebugMessage
 from bareos_libcloud_api.queue_message import MESSAGE_TYPE
-import Queue as Q
+
+try:
+    import Queue as Q
+except ImportError:
+    import queue as Q
 
 
 class ProcessBase(Process):
diff --git a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/worker.py b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/worker.py
index 5e886c1f7f5..692f65ab918 100644
--- a/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/worker.py
+++ b/core/src/plugins/filed/python/libcloud/bareos_libcloud_api/worker.py
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 import io
 from libcloud.common.types import LibcloudError
 from libcloud.storage.types import ObjectDoesNotExistError
-from utils import silentremove
+from bareos_libcloud_api.utils import silentremove
 from time import sleep
 import uuid
 
diff --git a/systemtests/scripts/start_minio.sh b/systemtests/scripts/start_minio.sh
index e9ace16fc52..d76d9eae799 100755
--- a/systemtests/scripts/start_minio.sh
+++ b/systemtests/scripts/start_minio.sh
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ while pidof "${MINIO}" > /dev/null; do
 done
 
 export MINIO_DOMAIN=localhost,127.0.0.1
-"${MINIO}" server --address \':$minio_port_number\' "$minio_tmp_data_dir" > "$logdir"/minio.log
+"${MINIO}" server --address :${minio_port_number} "$minio_tmp_data_dir" > "$logdir"/minio.log &
 
 if ! pidof ${MINIO} > /dev/null; then
   echo "$0: could not start minio server"
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ if ! pidof ${MINIO} > /dev/null; then
 fi
 
 tries=0
-while ! s3cmd --config=etc/s3cfg-local-minio ls S3:// > /dev/null 2>&1; do
+while ! s3cmd --config=${S3CFG} ls S3:// > /dev/null 2>&1; do
   sleep 0.1
   (( tries++ )) && [ $tries == '20' ] \
     && { echo "$0: could not start minio server"; exit 3; }
diff --git a/systemtests/tests/py2plug-fd-libcloud/testrunner b/systemtests/tests/py2plug-fd-libcloud/testrunner
index 7be6d5eefec..f0f1e462ce2 100755
--- a/systemtests/tests/py2plug-fd-libcloud/testrunner
+++ b/systemtests/tests/py2plug-fd-libcloud/testrunner
@@ -45,8 +45,17 @@ ${S3} rb --recursive --force s3://$bucket_name || echo "s3://$bucket_name does n
 ${S3} mb s3://$bucket_name
 
 
-# this test does not work with links because of the restore objects
-rm -r "${tmp}"/data/weird-files >/dev/null 2>&1
+# this test does not work with links and some other weird files as they would already
+# have a changed name by syncing to S3 using s3cmd
+find ${tmp}/data/weird-files -type l -exec rm {} \;
+find ${tmp}/data/weird-files -links +1 -type f -exec rm {} \;
+rm ${tmp}/data/weird-files/fifo*
+rm ${tmp}/data/weird-files/newline*
+rm ${tmp}/data/weird-files/tab*
+# s3cmd does not sync empty dirs
+rmdir ${tmp}/data/weird-files/big-X
+rmdir ${tmp}/data/weird-files/subdir
+
 ${S3} sync "$BackupDirectory" s3://$bucket_name
 
 start_test
@@ -56,6 +65,7 @@ cat <<END_OF_DATA >$tmp/bconcmds
 messages
 @$out $tmp/log1.out
 setdebug level=100 storage=File
+setdebug level=100 client=bareos-fd trace=1 timestamp=1
 label volume=TestVolume001 storage=File pool=Full
 run job=$JobName yes
 status director
@@ -89,6 +99,6 @@ if ! diff -r tmp/data tmp/bareos-restores/$bucket_name/data; then
   export estat=1
 fi
 
-"${rscripts}"/stop_minio.sh
+"${SYSTEMTESTS_DIR}"/scripts/stop_minio.sh
 
 end_test