The Novatel U727 is a dual-mode device. You plug it in, and Ubuntu sees it as a read-only mass storage device (containing Win32 drivers for the device). While cute, this behavior becomes obnoxious when one realizes that once the mass storage device driver claims the device, the serial device driver doesn’t care.
The key, of course, is to tell the mass storage device driver to GTFA. Ergo, ‘eject /dev/sr0′. However, this is not acceptable behavior for a ‘plug-n-play’ solution that will be used by possible techno-phobes.
Enter /etc/udev/rules.d! Create a file called 99-novatel.rules, with the following line:
ATTRS{manufacturer}=="Novatel Wireless Inc.", RUN+="/usr/bin/eject /dev/%k"
Unplug, plug, unplug, plug. Watch dmesg, and bask in the glory of your newfound sense of peace and relaxation. EVDO is indeed all it is cracked up to be.
(Use udevinfo -a -p /dev/sr0 to tweak the udev rule if needed…)
(There are other udev rules for this device on the Internet. Those did not work with my client’s machine. This one did, but it may not work on yours. Also, Ubuntu 8.04 uses airprime to talk to the device. Sublime!)