New MacBook Pro and VZAccess Manager

[enyalius]

Marcus,

As a response to your edit, I can only say that true 64bit allows for the use of more memory, as well as heightened security.  Who do you mean by "What is it that tells them they should do that?", and what is "that".  Sorry, but that statement is a bit ambiguous.  

What really bugs me is the silence on VZW's part.  This is obviously an issue that is not the fault of an individual user; this is a software issue that should be able to be fixed with better software.  As a company, Verizon should admit to this issue and give us some hope that they are even working on fixing it.  What I want to know is: what's going on behind the scenes right now?

[Travelguy]

You can force the new macbook pro to boot into 32 bit kernel and then the access manager works fine though you are stuck operating in the slower kernel.   I tested and this works!  Took several back & forth calls between Verizon (who said call Apple) and Apple (who said call Verizon - what else is new) before I finally got a senior Apple tech who was able to trouble shoot and provide the correct info,

The apple support doc is "ht3773" which you can type into the search bar when you go to apple.com and select support.  details are below.  Since new macbook pro default is 64 bit kernel, you have to do the manual over-ride every time you reboot (if you use the keyboard version) or you can setup your macbook to persistently boot into 32 bit kernel though you lose some of the extra speed/memory use of the 64 bit kernel. 

I think there are some thrid party programs you can download/buy that will do the switching for you automatically at boot but not sure about them.  I only use the 4G modem about once per week so I'll normally boot into the fast 64 bit mode and just reboot into 32 bit kernel at times i need to use the pantech - at least until Verizon (hopefully) updated the vz access manager program or apple provide native support for the 4G modems.

Details from ht3773 below:

Summary

Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard includes a 64-bit kernel. On hardware that supports the 64-bit kernel, you can choose whether to start up (boot) your Mac using the new 64-bit kernel or the earlier 32-bit kernel. 

Products Affected

Mac OS X Server 10.6, Mac OS X 10.6, Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

You can use either of these methods:

Method 1: Startup key combination (for current startup only)

• If your Mac uses the 32-bit kernel by default, but supports the 64-bit kernel, you can start up using the 64-bit kernel by holding the 6 and 4 keys during startup.
• If your Mac uses the 64-bit kernel by default, you can start up with the 32-bit kernel by holding the 3 and 2 keys during startup.

Your Mac will revert to the default kernel the next time you reboot it.

Method 2: On-disk setting (persistent)

To select the 64-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture x86_64

To select the 32-bit kernel for the current startup disk, use the following command in Terminal:

sudo systemsetup -setkernelbootarchitecture i386

Note: This setting is stored in the /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist file and will take effect every time you start up from this disk. If you start up from a different disk, the setting on that disk, or the hardware default, will take effect.

Additional Information

• Keys held during startup (such as 3-2 or 6-4, method 1 above) will override the setting in com.apple.Boot.plist (method 2 above).

[enyalius]

Travelguy is 100% correct on this one, and I made a similar post on the forums here if you are interested in learning a little more about what's different in 32bit vs 64, as well as a link on how to undo the damage that the dial-up hack can cause.

[Mister-Marcus]

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enyalius wrote:

Marcus,

As a response to your edit, I can only say that true 64bit allows for the use of more memory, as well as heightened security.  Who do you mean by "What is it that tells them they should do that?", and what is "that".  Sorry, but that statement is a bit ambiguous.  

What really bugs me is the silence on VZW's part.  This is obviously an issue that is not the fault of an individual user; this is a software issue that should be able to be fixed with better software.  As a company, Verizon should admit to this issue and give us some hope that they are even working on fixing it.  What I want to know is: what's going on behind the scenes right now?

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What I am asking is this.

On the previous gen MacBook Pros, Snow Leopard booted into 32 bit mode, but was 64 bit aware.  That meant that the kernels and all applications that supported it could load 64 bit to take advantage of the greater memory.  

On the current gen MacBook Pro it appears that something, firmware maybe, is forcing Snow Leopard to boot into full 64 bit mode.

My question is why did Apple feel the need to do that, since the previous gen could still take advantage of all 8 GB of RAM for programs that ran in 64 bit?  The OS itself doesn't need that much RAM, only the applications running.  If they're running in 64 bit mode they will address the full RAM space, so it seems illogical to load into 64 bit mode.

[enyalius]

Could the previous generation MacBooks take advantage of more than 3 or 4 GB of memory?  

As I understand it, addressing memory (as well as assigning it for use by applications) is a function of the kernel and the operating system.  The kernel (darwin, in this case) can't address the memory to allocate it to programs (as the case with more than 4GB on a 32bit OS), then how can the programs access it?  I know that 10.6 was capable of running 64bit programs while running the kernel in 32bit mode (unless my memory is failing right now), but I didn't think the OS could actually use all the memory.  I know it would report seeing it all, but I don't think it used it all (I could be wrong, though).

[RT_71]

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enyalius wrote:

Could the previous generation MacBooks take advantage of more than 3 or 4 GB of memory?  

As I understand it, addressing memory (as well as assigning it for use by applications) is a function of the kernel and the operating system.  The kernel (darwin, in this case) can't address the memory to allocate it to programs (as the case with more than 4GB on a 32bit OS), then how can the programs access it?  I know that 10.6 was capable of running 64bit programs while running the kernel in 32bit mode (unless my memory is failing right now), but I didn't think the OS could actually use all the memory.  I know it would report seeing it all, but I don't think it used it all (I could be wrong, though).

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You are correct, even if it reported seeing the full memory profile, the kernel would not be able to leverage it for use of the application, wether or not the app ran in kernel mode or not, it still must use kernel processes to access memory, unless it is a low level device capable of and designed to use DMA, which means taht i tbypass hte OS completely.

I thnak you all for reporting this isuue as I was here to advise my boss on upgrading to the 4G card or not fo use with his newly ordered macbook pro....

[chrisobrooks]

VERIZON UPDATED THE SOFTWARE.

Solve this problem by simply downloading the software update here: www.vzam.net/4g/novatel/Default.aspx

[jb510]

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chrisobrooks wrote:

VERIZON UPDATED THE SOFTWARE.

Solve this problem by simply downloading the software update here: www.vzam.net/4g/novatel/Default.aspx

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That links to 7.2.3 which doesn't install on Lion (at least not for me, it gives a fatal error requesting admin rights), however it lead me to an actual solution so thank you.

I was trying to solve this on my own and when I couldn't install using 7.2.3 under Lion tried installing on 10.6.8 and then manually copying the files installed by the 7.2.3 installer over to 10.7.

According the the BOM (inside the installer package) that would be:

/Application/VZAccess Manager.app

/Library/Application Support/Verizon Wirelsss/...

/System/Library/Extensions/...

There were a couple com.smithmicro...  files I copied as well...

After copying those over I changed owner back to 'root' and matched permissions…  I thought this should have worked, but it wasn't…  not sure why, maybe I missed something.

Then I discovered there was a version 7.3.1 (2673e) for the Pantech UML290.  I downloaded it and looked inside it's installer packaged and say it has all the same drivers as 7.2.3 plus a couple extras…  so I tried installing it under Lion and to my surprise it didn't choke at the admin rights issue 7.2.3 was having. I rebooted, and viola my USB551 is working just fine on Lion.

What exactly is _required_ to recreate this I don't know and don't have the time to figure out…  but my suggestion for others to to download 7.3.1 and try installing that first, that may be all that is required to get it working from scratch under Lion.  If that doesn't work…  then get a copy of Pacifist and start looking inside the packages' archive.BOM and copying files out (eaiser for most than installing on 10.6.8 and copying from there.  I'm a developer and I certianly would NOT recommend this for an "average" user...  the kind that doesn't know how to rollback thier machine when this totally screws everything up....  the geeker among you though can probably figure it out...

Look here for latest versions of VZ Access Manager:

http://www.vzam.net/download/supported.aspx

Look here to get directly to the version of 7.3.1 I referenced:

http://www.vzam.net/download/download.aspx?productid=925

Good Luck!  Let me know here if it works or not for you...  but _don't_ whine to me if it breaks your machine and you don't know how to fix it.  

[revclaus]

I just bought a new Macbook Air (my first Mac) and had the same problem. Used your solution with my USB760 and it solved the problem.  Weird!  Thanks for posting yours.