Starting with the iPod Classics and the Video Nanos, libgpod needs an 

additional configuration step to correctly modify the iPod content. libgpod 

needs to know the so-called iPod "firewire id", otherwise the iPod won't 

recognize what libgpod wrote to it and will behave as if it's empty.

There are several ways to set up an iPod so libgpod can find its firewire id.

The preferred method is automatic. Make sure you have hal and libsgutils

installed before running configure/autogen.sh. If you built libgpod without

them, run configure/make/make install after you install them.

A hal callout and .fdi file will be built and installed. This will query an

iPod when it is plugged in and save the SysInfoExtended file in the proper

place. This should be entirely automatic. If you have trouble with this, see

the TROUBLESHOOTING file for some hints.

If you build with libsgutils but without hal, the next best method is mostly

automatic. You should have an ipod-read-sysinfo-extended tool available. Run

it with the iPod device path and the iPod mount point /mnt/ipod) as arguments.

For example:

    $ ipod-read-sysinfo-extended /dev/sda /mnt/ipod

This may require root privileges. It reads an XML file from the iPod and

writes it as /mnt/ipod/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfoExtended. More details on

this method can be found at http://ipodlinux.org/Device_Information.

Having the SysInfoExtended file created by ipod-read-sysinfo-extended or the

hal callout is enough for libgpod to figure out the iPod firewire id.

The last method requires more manual intervention. First, you need to

determine the firewire id of the iPod. To do that on Linux, plug in the iPod

in and run (with root privileges):

    $ lsusb -v | grep -i Serial

This should print a 16 character long string like 00A1234567891231. For an

iPod Touch, this number will be much longer than 16 characters, the firewire

ID is constituted by the first 16 characters.

On FreeBSD, there is a tool to get the serial number at:

    http://50hz.ws/dev/getserial.c

Once you have the serial number, edit /mnt/ipod/iPod_Control/Device/SysInfo,

creating the file if it does not exist. (Replace /mnt/ipod with the path to

where the iPod is mounted). Add a line like this to the SysInfo file:

FirewireGuid: 0xffffffffffffffff

Replace ffffffffffffffff with the serial number you obtained in the previous

step. Don't forget the 0x before the string. After you add the FirewireGuid to

the SysInfo file you need to rewrite the iTunesDB for the change to take

effect. For example, add a new song or adjust the playcount of an existing

song and save the changes in gtkpod.

Be careful when using applications which let you manually specify the iPod

model. They may overwrite the SysInfo file and undo the changes.

Finally, if you compiled libgpod from source, you can test that libgpod can

find the firewire ID on the iPod using the test-firewire-id program in the

tests/ dir of the libgpod source. For example:

    $ cd ~/src/libgpod/tests

    $ ./test-firewire-id /ipod/mount/point