I run Xandros 4.0 Professional on a dual-boot laptop, which also has XP. The kernel is 2.6.18. I want to use the new Novatel Wireless U720 Broadband USB CDMA modem that Sprint sells for connecting to their EV-DO network. It works great in XP, for which there is an installation program, but I do not know how to use it my Linux distro. Xandros detects it correctly and lists it under Networks, not under Modems. Xandros has CDMA support. I cannot find any useful information on the Internet. What I have done so far is to install the Windows drivers using NDISwrapper. I also tried to install the Windows installation program using Crossover, but that failed.

Any suggestions for installing it in my Linux distro?

Your first step should be to visit www.linmodem.org
Do some reading, click on scanModem tool link which will take you to another page, here there should be instructions on using scanModem tool and another link by that name which will open download window to download it. It will produce all kinds of documents that will tell you, if your modem is supported, where to get driver source if required, a link to linmodem maintainers discussions if you need their assistance.
On the first page www.linmodems.org is a link named "archives", click on it and go through past cases to which there more than likely is one where someone has same hardware and read them if you please.

Thanks for all your comments. Meanwhile I searched a little further and did the following. It is based on an article by William Stein that I found on the Novatel Wireless website. He used the Sprint Merlin C201 PCMCIA card, which should work similarly to the Sprint USB broadband modem.

The modem should first be activated on a Windows machine. The activation process gives you a password. I added that password to my chap-secret file in /usr/share/ppp, as I assumed that Sprint's ppp server requires CHAP authorization. I added the line:

PDSN my_username my_password

to chap-secret. I then installed the Windows drivers using NDISwrapper, but I am not sure if this is necessary or not.

The modem automatically goes online when it is connected to the laptop. It then shows up in /dev as usbdev1.4_ep00 on my machine.

Connection to the network should then occur upon issuing the command:

/usr/sbin/pppd /dev/usbdev1.4_ep00 57600 defaultroute user my_username

However, what I got was:

/usr/sbin/pppd: The remote system is required to authenticate itself
/usr/sbin/pppd: but I couldn't find any suitable secret (password) for it to use to do so.

Apparently, I am still doing something wrong and the Sprint network rejects my modem connection. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

My ISP does not require authentication, so when setting up e-mail in Evolution or whatever, I remove the checkmark in the box for "server requires authentication". I believe you will need to talk to your ISP to find what is the password for authentication, or go back into Windows and search around in "properties" of the network connection for that card through Start/Control Panel/Network & Internet Connections, and highlight the appropriate connection and either select properties from left pane in the window or right click the connection and select properties. You may have to look deep in there, such as clicking "Advanced" buttons. But you should be able to find an area including a section for Authentication. There are two servers used with e-mail, one for sending mail, one for receiving mail, mine are pop & smtp, the smtp server for some ISP's require this Authentication.

This is certainly not the most eloquent or the best solution, but it worked for me..

As root, issue lsusb after plugging on the device. Note the “CMOTECH” and the vendor/product numbers to the left. These instructions are for 16d8/6008...

Bus 001 Device 022: ID 046d:c062 Logitech, Inc.

Bus 001 Device 018: ID 0a5c:217f Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller

Bus 001 Device 012: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 001 Device 013: ID 17ef:480f Lenovo Integrated Webcam [R5U877]

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Bus 002 Device 008: ID 16d8:6008 CMOTECH Co., Ltd.

Bus 002 Device 006: ID 1a40:0101 TERMINUS TECHNOLOGY INC. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB

Bus 002 Device 004: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

uname -a results
Linux xxx.xxx.xxx 2.6.18-238.el5PAE #1 SMP Sun Dec 19 14:42:44 EST 2010 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Unplug the USB device, then add these lines to /etc/udev/rules.d/50-udev.rules

ACTION!="add", GOTO="3G_End"

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="6008", SYSFS{idVendor}=="16d8", \

RUN+="/sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x16d8 product=0x6008"

LABEL="3G_End"


Issue “sudo wvdialconf”

Use your favorite editor and edit wvdial.conf like this one:

[Dialer Defaults]

Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1

Baud = 460800

Init1 = ATZ

Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

ISDN = 0

Modem Type = Analog Modem

Phone = #777

Username = ''

Password = ''

Carrier Check = no

Stupid Mode = yes

Plug in the USB Modem. The dmesg command should show something like:
usb 2-1.2: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 6

usb 2-1.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

hub 2-1.2:1.0: USB hub found

hub 2-1.2:1.0: 4 ports detected

usb 2-1.2.2: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8

usb 2-1.2.2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

usbserial_generic 2-1.2.2:1.0: generic converter detected

usb 2-1.2.2: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0

usbserial_generic 2-1.2.2:1.1: generic converter detected

usb 2-1.2.2: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB1

usbserial_generic 2-1.2.2:1.2: generic converter detected

usb 2-1.2.2: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB2

usbserial_generic 2-1.2.2:1.3: generic converter detected

usb 2-1.2.2: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB3

usbserial_generic 2-1.2.2:1.4: generic converter detected

usb 2-1.2.2: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB4


Issue the wvdial command.. the following should appear
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.54.0

--> Cannot get information for serial port.

--> Initializing modem.

--> Sending: ATZ

ATZ

OK

--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0

OK

--> Modem initialized.

--> Sending: ATDT#777

--> Waiting for carrier.

ATDT#777

CONNECT

--> Carrier detected. Starting PPP immediately.

--> Starting pppd at Tue Aug 2 09:33:10 2011

--> pid of pppd: 30088

--> Using interface ppp0

--> local IP address 184.244.20.23

--> remote IP address 68.28.153.71

--> primary DNS address 68.28.154.91

--> secondary DNS address 68.28.146.91

You should now be connected at 3G.