How to make the Sprint Novatel u727 EVDO modem work in Snow Leopard
As expected, I upgraded my MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard and my Sprint Novatel u727 EVDO modem wouldn’t work. Basically the problem is you don’t need the SmartView software, but it fails to uninstall. So here is how you manually uninstall it.
Disconnect the u727 and open terminal and run these three commands then reboot — always be careful with sudo and especially rm -rf, they can destroy your data if you aren’t careful.
sudo mount -uw / sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/NovatelWireless3G.kext/ sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/NovatelWirelessFilter.kext/
Now after you reboot, plug in the u727. At first it’ll pop up like a USB drive, eject it and eventually a Network dialog box will pop up, so hit preferences — not sure if there is a way to always prevent it from mounting. Now you should see it listed with the other network devices other system preferences. Hit “Apply” at the bottom right, and now hit connect.
The best part is now you don’t need SmartView and whenever you plug the modem in, the WWAN icon will show up on the menu bar which is much better and something that never worked with SmartView installed.
August 30th, 2009 at 3:16 pm
Many THANKS!!!
I tried speaking with tech support at Sprint – what a mistake. None of the technicians had even used mac before. Three techs later – nothing.
Keep up the great work,
Marc
August 31st, 2009 at 9:10 am
Interesting. I have the same modem with Verizon Wireless and needed to use it last night for our fantasy football draft. Instead of installing Verizon’s VZ Access Manager software, I decided to see how Snow Leopard would handle it natively. It was plug and play – worked like a charm all night long with no additional software.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:17 am
You’re totally right Kevin, no software is needed with Snow Leopard. My problem was I did an upgrade and the old drivers were still there and the uninstaller failed. So this is basically a how to manually uninstall.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:53 am
[...] interferes and isn’t really needed. However, the software isn’t easy to uninstall, so Ben offers three commands to make the U727 work natively, just like my USB727. I suspect that if Ben had done a clean install like I did, he wouldn’t [...]
September 1st, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Lifesaver!! Thanks for posting this. I’m on the road and failed to test my card after upgrading. I had to search for the fix on my phone. Many thanks!
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:16 am
Thank you so very very much!!!
This worked perfectly for me, using the Novatel U727 on the Bell Canada network and Snow Leopard. Fantastic!
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:19 pm
I did this and the light flashes when I connect the U727 but other than the USB Storage showing up, nothing works. Nothing shows up in the networking preferences either.
Any idea?
September 3rd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
BTW, I’m also on the Bell Canada network (which should not matter) and I am using a MacBook Pro that is 3 years old. The first MBP with the LCD screen.
Furthermore, when I install the Novatel Mobile Utility V1.03, it does sees the network drive to run the activation and the diadnostic utility shows no errors after activation. It simply won’t connect, so I remove the utility and followed the instructions above.
September 3rd, 2009 at 4:56 pm
It should show up after you eject the device, but you do have to wait a minute. If you’ve waited and it still didn’t show up, I’d look in the Console for any relative logs. You can post them here and I’ll try to take a look.
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
My Unibody MacBook Pro does not see the Sprint Aircard 597E so I appear to be SOL.
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:09 pm
ok i tried this and it didnt work. what did i do wrong? was i suppose to hit enter after each line? was i suppose to uninstall something? IDK what the hell is going on
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:17 pm
ok i hit enter after i typed the 1st sudo line and it ask me for my password is it suppose to do that? what do i do to turn that off so it want ask for my password? I am truly lost HELP!!!!! HELP!!!!
Last login: Fri Sep 4 01:58:55 on console
kevin-williamss-macbook-pro-15:~ kevinwilliams$ sudo mount -uw/
Password:
mount: illegal option — /
usage: mount [-dfruvw] [-o options] [-t ufs | external_type] special node
mount [-adfruvw] [-t ufs | external_type]
mount [-dfruvw] special | node
kevin-williamss-macbook-pro-15:~ kevinwilliams$
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:50 pm
ok got the problem fixed i can connect to net. do i have to keep doing the same install every time i would like to use it?
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:53 pm
guess i need to read the whole thing 1st before i ask ? i got the answer now that i read the whole thing. Thanks u r truly a life saver I was bout to loose my mind trying to figure it out all night long just got it done it’s 252am bout to go to bed now. Once again thanks A Trillion.
September 4th, 2009 at 5:36 am
Did you look in the Console? There should be something logged every time you plug in a USB device.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I am new to mac and just upgraded to leopard and have read your advice up top but I cannot find “the terminal” to type the command
September 4th, 2009 at 9:10 am
You should get someone to help you then. You might want to go down to the Apple store for some training or help. But to find the terminal just hit the magnifying glass icon in the top right of the window and type terminal.
September 5th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
many, many thanks; worked like you said; 3 sprint techs later, no help—(this does eliminate my excuse to upgrade to the mifi tho)
thanks again
September 7th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
As others have said here already, thank you, thank you, thank you. On a business trip tomorrow, and decided, well, better check my Sprint card on the SL upgrade. Glad I did, and glad I found your instructions. You saved my trip!
September 8th, 2009 at 7:01 am
Thanks, Ben, that did the trick for my Novatel EX720.
I hope someone at Sprint is reading this… their software is lame.
September 11th, 2009 at 8:21 am
this article lists all the Sprint and Verizon EVDO devices that work using Snow Leopards built-in WWAN support:
http://bit.ly/1r5pNe
September 15th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Your the man bro! Seriously fantastic post… Only good one on the net regarding this issue. Thanks for the help.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:40 am
This worked for my Bell XpressCard X720 as well — nice work!!!
October 5th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Works great, thanks so much!
October 5th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
You’re the man! I just spent more than an hour with Sprint’s support trying to figure out why my VPN connection wasn’t working, when all I needed to do was follow your directions. Now, it is working flawlessly.
October 5th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Did you figure out a way to prevent the device from mounting (so you have to eject it each time)?
October 5th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
No, I never did figure that out, but I did spend an hour on it the other day.
October 16th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I’ve been looking for this solution for 2 years. Thanks for the easy to follow guide!
October 28th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
Wow, thanks! Being non-technical in my capabilities, I was nervous that I’d have to buy another device. Thanks so much for your well-written, simple instructions. I had trouble at first, but was simply missing a space in the command string. That was easy to solve, and now I’m up and running. Thanks again.
October 28th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
one other note: on my MacBookAir, when I first plug in the u727, it shows up as a CD (not a drive). No biggie, just eject it and everything else works great.
November 9th, 2009 at 5:54 pm
It’s worth noting that the only function of the NovatelWirelessFilter kernel extension is to suppress the mounting of the installer drive. If you remove the data driver but not the filter driver then it will not automount and the WWAN interface will just come up without you having to do anything (or at least it does for me).
February 4th, 2010 at 9:03 am
Ben, they should link to this page from Sprint.com. Your suggested fix works great.
February 24th, 2010 at 6:00 am
Works GREAT with my U720 using Bell Canada ( and not Sprint). Thank you SO..OO much.
P.S. Using Copy from a your page and Paste into the Terminal window works well to avoid having to type the commands.
February 27th, 2010 at 6:05 am
I can’t say a huge enough thank you — after being on the phone with bell for days, i followed these instructions and finally i got it to work.
Thanks so much for this — i would have been euchred if this wasn’t here
November 23rd, 2010 at 8:59 am
Trying to get OS X 10.6.5 to recognize my U727 but even after deleting the 2 files, it doesn’t seem to want to see the card after I reboot. Is there something different with 10.6.5 or does this version of Snow Leopard even recognize the U727? Thanks, Roger
February 2nd, 2011 at 6:58 pm
WOW, this was SO HELPFUL. it seems so straightforward, but the sequence of actions is so critical. specifically (1) ejecting the mounted drive/CD made it finally appear in network pref and (2) hitting Apply before i hit Connect made it connect. this is a brand new mac and you SAVED ME FROM SPRINT SMARTVIEW. if i could i would pay you 5 bucks.