ipodpatcher unable to detect ipod nano

[mightybrick]

Well, I have a nano 1gen that refuses to boot the apple firmware.  iTunes is unable to restore it, as well as the old ipod updater software.  I have been able to reformat the device to FAT32 and boot it into disk mode, but iTunes and the old updater will still not restore the device.  I am able to drag and drop files onto the device.  I figured since the nano will boot into disk mode, that I perhaps could install rockbox on it and regain some use from it.  My only problem is that the RBUtility and ipodpatcher both are unable to detect the device.  I have tried both on a windows and linux machine and have had the same results.  I don't know what more to try.
Any suggestions?

[bluebrother]

You could try the ManualRestore that's described in the wiki. I made a CF card to get recognized as an Ipod that way.

[mightybrick]

I attempted that as well, and it didn't work.  I still got the "Use iTunes to Restore" message, and no different detection on either computer.  Perhaps it's a brick, or just a fancy jumpdrive.
It doesn't seem to make sense though, that it functions as a USB Mass Storage device, and is detected by windows and linux as an ipod, but not detected as such by either ipodpatcher nor RBUtility.