ossdevlinks(8)

📦
version 4.2-build2020 · 3 versions
, in ubuntu noble

okay bestie, pull up a chair 🫶 this is ossdevlinks, a lil system admin tool from the OSS System Administration Commands lineup, and it's literally the keeper of your legacy audio device files. it's giving backstage-pass energy for /dev 🎀

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ossdevlinks [-vr]

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so the ossdevlinks utility makes and manages old style (aka legacy) device files for your OSS audio, MIDI and mixer devices. it's the friend who keeps the old group chat alive 💖

back in previous versions, OSS used "flat" device numbering for device files — think /dev/dsp0 all the way through /dev/dspN. then OSS version 4.0 and later showed up with a whole new naming scheme (glow up ✨). so now ossdevlinks exists to manage the legacy device names as symbolic links pointing at the new style devices. iconic behavior honestly 💅

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

normally you just run ossdevlinks with zero command line arguments, no notes. but there are a few options if you wanna get specific 👑

  • -f<name> — write the legacydev file to <fname>. 📝
  • -N — do not actually modify the device files. look but don't touch, bestie 🙈
  • -r — reset the legacy device numbering. and um. do not use this. seriously. 🚩
  • -v — verbose output, so it tells you everything it's doing 🗣️
⚠️ okay so about -r: it may invalidate the audio device selections in the setup files of various applications. this is considered highly undesirable. and it's not just drama — applications using the wrong audio devices may cause serious security and privacy problems. 😭 so for that reason, -r should never be used unless there are genuinely no other ways to recover from serious audio/sound related problems. and even after that, users should review the audio settings of all the audio applications they're using. like, all of them. fr fr. 💀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

🌈 FILES 🌈

  • /usr/sbin/ossdevlinks
  • /var/lib/oss4/legacy_devices
  • /dev/dspN
  • /dev/midiNN
  • /dev/mixerN

👑 AUTHOR 👑

4Front Technologies

mwah 💖 that's the whole page, bestie — shoutout to the OSS System Administration Commands crew, and this one's dated 11 February 2015 in the ossdevlinks(8) section. go forth and symlink responsibly. periodt. 🎀✨

📦 where this page comes from