Ensuring USB DVD order

As my USB dvd drives were being detected into a seemingly random order, I wanted to be able to control what device each was being assigned.

Adding udev rules

• Find serials to add
• sudo udevadm info /dev/sr0 | grep ID_SERIAL_SHORT
• sudo udevadm info /dev/sr1 | grep ID_SERIAL_SHORT
• sudo udevadm info /dev/sr2 | grep ID_SERIAL_SHORT
• Create /etc/udev/rules.d/99-dvd.rules

ACTION="add", KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="first drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd0"

ACTION="add", KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="second drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd1"

ACTION="add", KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="third drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd2"

• Reboot or force rerunning the rules
• sudo udevadm control --reload
• sudo udevadm trigger
• However, this did not work
• Edit /etc/udev/rules.d/99-dvd.rules and remove the ACTION

KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="first drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd0"

KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="second drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd1"

KERNEL="sr[0-9]", ENV{ID_SERIAL_SHORT}="third drive serial", SYMLINK+="dvd2"

• Reboot or force rerunning the rules
• sudo udevadm control --reload
• sudo udevadm trigger

Outcome

Success, it now creates the /dev/dvd* in a consistent order. Unfortunately, Handbrake still tries to use the /dev/sr* labels.

Appendix

Sources

• https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1ci1nsj/fixed_identity_location_for_multiple_optical/
• https://reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html#basic
• https://dev.to/enbis/how-udev-rules-can-help-us-to-recognize-a-usb-to-serial-device-over-dev-tty-interface-pbk