Sprint ExpressCard EVDO (EX720) Setup Fix (NotFortyTwo)

With the release of Sprint's new EVDO ExpressCard, I finally have a portable, high speed, solution for my MacBook Pro. One of the events that made the decision easier was the release of drivers from Apple.

Of course, the other major driver is freedom from Starbuck's! No more HotSpot tether!

There is a great setup walk through at MWGblog, but it was written prior to Apple's driver release. Unfortunately, in adding support, Apple added an almost insurmountable roadblock to setup.

With a little command line work, setup can still be accomplished, but it's not pretty...

Step 1: Download Apple's new aircard drivers. You probably already had them installed through Software Update, but what we're about to do will undo that. You can grab the update here: WWAN Support Update 1.0

You've probably popped the EVDO card into your MacBook Pro by now and noticed that it's recognized. A nice little signal meter appears in the menu bar. That's our problem. Even if you turn off the card, the drivers are still active and Parallels cannot take over the USB connection.

So, here's the fun part. We are going to delete the drivers so the Mac no longer takes control of the card.

Step 2: Start Terminal (you'll find this in the Utilities folder under Applications)

Step 3: From the command prompt type the following two commands:

cd /System/Library/Extensions/IOSerialFamily.kext/Contents/PlugIns sudo rm AppleWWAN*

Step 4: Reboot your system

Step 5: You should now be able to load your Parallels Windows XP and register the card.

Step 6: Once you are finished configuring the card in the virtual Windows session, reinstall the drivers (the package you downloaded at the beginning), and reboot.