LTE USB dongle Huawei datacard driver on macOS Mojave
Using a Huawei USB-stick for LTE connectivity there is a data-partition on the stick that automounts and offers the installation of a "Mobile Partner.app" software and some drivers in the form of kernel extensions.
These are hopelessly outdated and ceased to function with Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
Huawei used to offer upgrades that worked under OS 10.9 and another under 10.10 That however is now gone completely from the Huawei website and older links are either 404 or greeting us with the message "Content has been archived".
My mobile phone provider also used to offer their own bundle under the name "Mobile Connection Manager". That also contained updated drivers that worked with more modern versions of the OS. On their support pages the now simply state and answer likewise to questions about it that they just do not offer that any longer.
The problem is now, that the old drivers can be shoehorned into a Sierra install but lead to a kernel panic on boot. This is for the latest drivers from a Huawei installer I archived. Upgraded from Yosemite the drivers work in Sierra. Those from Huawei are still called DatacardDriverMacOSX(10.9)
On Mojave the installer complains about an expired certificate but continues. Expecting a security exception to confirm I restarted and the extensions just do not load at all. The system just refuses to touch them and loading is no longer possible. Now I guess that I might disable SIP for that but I would strongly prefer getting an updated driver for the hardware that works cleanly under mac OS 10.14 Mojave.
The latest software I tried were
Mobile Connection manager Version 8.9 (8.9.0.13408) (Every button, every action broken under Mojave, no connection)
Mobile Partner.app creation date: 30. Sep. 2017 (when I last installed it on Sierra) copyright Huawei v 23.015.11.01.983 (2014)
And the latest download I could now still find in a forum is bringing only a version from 18. April 2016.
That was advertised in the forum as "mobile partner für 10.12" to be found at http://download-c.huawei.com/download/downloadCenter?downloadId=90143&version=352019&siteCode=worldwide
the downloads a file called MAC-V200R003B015D16SP00C983.zip
In that download is a driver install for HuaweiDataCardDriver_10_9.kext modification date 21. Apr. 2016 that will not load in Mojave.
Now that site seems unsearchable and I did not even manage to navigate there from regular Huawei sites.
They still sell sticks like the one I have, but with updated part numbers/model names/features new – and the older sticks used to work with the latest one-size fits all drivers. They only ever had one driver package for Macs that supported all sticks they ever made. As that stick I have supports all the speed the provider offers here I'd like to stick with that stick. The latest downloads to be found via the Huawei site seem to be Windows only. I feel that that cannot be the last word on it.
Therefore:
How do I get an old Huawei Surfstick LTE USBdongle modem to work with macOS 10.14 Mojave?
You may be missing the following .kext driver:
/Library/Extensions/HuaweiDataCardDriver_10_9.kext
for the Huawei E3372 modem (aka Megafon M150-2).
As explained in this excellent blog post, you just need to download the driver for your macOS version:
- macOS 10.14 Mojave
- macOS 11.15 Catalina
and install it.
Note that the driver for Catalina won't work with macOS 11 "Big Sur".
The way kexts work changed in the latest releases of macOS. You could
- try the drivers from on of the sticks Huawei still sells (even though they seem to support only up to 10.8 either)
- reach out to Huawei support directly
- try to install the latest driver even though the certificate is invalid (I'm sure somebody with more know-how than I could write an answer for this)
- hack the latest available driver (or write your own), both of which would be offtopic for AD
Besides that, getting a new dongle or, as has been recommended in the comments already, either use the hotspot in your phone or get a WiFi hotspot device might be the easier path to follow.