diff --git a/audio/out/ao_oss.c b/audio/out/ao_oss.c
index af6048b7b5..6767fda168 100644
--- a/audio/out/ao_oss.c
+++ b/audio/out/ao_oss.c
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <sys/stat.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
+#include <poll.h>
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <strings.h>
@@ -219,6 +220,14 @@ static int control(struct ao *ao, enum aocontrol cmd, void *arg)
     return CONTROL_UNKNOWN;
 }
 
+// 1: ok, 0: not writable, -1: error
+static int device_writable(struct ao *ao)
+{
+    struct priv *p = ao->priv;
+    struct pollfd fd = {.fd = p->audio_fd, .events = POLLOUT};
+    return poll(&fd, 1, 0);
+}
+
 // open & setup audio device
 // return: 0=success -1=fail
 static int init(struct ao *ao)
@@ -393,30 +402,22 @@ ac3_retry:
 
     if (p->buffersize == -1) {
         // Measuring buffer size:
-        void *data;
+        void *data = malloc(p->outburst);
+        if (!data) {
+            MP_ERR(ao, "Out of memory, or broken outburst size.\n");
+            return -1;
+        }
         p->buffersize = 0;
-#if HAVE_AUDIO_SELECT
-        data = malloc(p->outburst);
         memset(data, 0, p->outburst);
-        while (p->buffersize < 0x40000) {
-            fd_set rfds;
-            struct timeval tv;
-            FD_ZERO(&rfds);
-            FD_SET(p->audio_fd, &rfds);
-            tv.tv_sec = 0;
-            tv.tv_usec = 0;
-            if (!select(p->audio_fd + 1, NULL, &rfds, NULL, &tv))
-                break;
+        while (p->buffersize < 0x40000 && device_writable(ao) > 0) {
             write(p->audio_fd, data, p->outburst);
             p->buffersize += p->outburst;
         }
         free(data);
         if (p->buffersize == 0) {
-            MP_ERR(ao, "***  Your audio driver DOES NOT support select()  ***\n");
-            MP_ERR(ao, "Recompile mpv with #define HAVE_AUDIO_SELECT 0 in config.h!\n");
+            MP_ERR(ao, "Your OSS audio driver DOES NOT support poll().\n");
             return -1;
         }
-#endif
     }
 
     ao->bps = ao->channels.num * af_fmt2bps(ao->format);
@@ -500,28 +501,12 @@ static int get_space(struct ao *ao)
 {
     struct priv *p = ao->priv;
 
-#ifdef SNDCTL_DSP_GETOSPACE
     if (ioctl(p->audio_fd, SNDCTL_DSP_GETOSPACE, &p->zz) != -1) {
         // calculate exact buffer space:
         return p->zz.fragments * p->zz.fragsize / ao->sstride;
     }
-#endif
 
-    // check buffer
-#if HAVE_AUDIO_SELECT
-    {
-        fd_set rfds;
-        struct timeval tv;
-        FD_ZERO(&rfds);
-        FD_SET(p->audio_fd, &rfds);
-        tv.tv_sec = 0;
-        tv.tv_usec = 0;
-        if (!select(p->audio_fd + 1, NULL, &rfds, NULL, &tv))
-            return 0;                                            // not block!
-    }
-#endif
-
-    return p->outburst / ao->sstride;
+    return device_writable(ao) > 0 ? p->outburst / ao->sstride : 0;
 }
 
 // stop playing, keep buffers (for pause)
diff --git a/old-configure b/old-configure
index 16890b4a55..8958857930 100755
--- a/old-configure
+++ b/old-configure
@@ -213,7 +213,6 @@ options_state_machine() {
     opt_yes_no _portaudio   "PortAudio audio output"
     opt_yes_no _jack        "JACK audio output"
     opt_yes_no _openal      "OpenAL audio output"
-    opt_yes_no _select      "using select() on the audio device" yes
     opt_yes_no _shm         "X11/Xv shared memory"
     opt_yes_no _lua         "Lua scripting"
     opt_yes_no _encoding    "encoding functionality" yes
@@ -542,8 +541,6 @@ define_yes_no $_termios_ok HAVE_TERMIOS
 check_statement_libs "shm" $_shm SHM "sys/types.h sys/ipc.h sys/shm.h" \
     "shmget(0, 0, 0); shmat(0, 0, 0); shmctl(0, 0, 0);"
 
-check_trivial "audio select()" $_select AUDIO_SELECT
-
 echocheck "pkg-config"
 if $($_pkg_config --version > /dev/null 2>&1); then
   if test "$_ld_static"; then
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index 1542780995..586f2cddf0 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -458,11 +458,6 @@ audio_output_features = [
         'func': check_true,
         'deps_any': [ 'oss-audio-native', 'oss-audio-sunaudio',
                       'oss-audio-4front' ]
-    }, {
-        'name': '--audio-select',
-        'desc': 'audio select()',
-        'deps': [ 'oss-audio' ],
-        'func': check_true,
     }, {
         'name': '--rsound',
         'desc': 'RSound audio output',