Sometimes and with some DB platforms especially when you are testing and want to reduce the number of variables during development, testing etc.. you don not want SELinux watching your back. While it is a must to enable SELinux in hardened production systems it can be quite a pain to handle. Sometimes it needs disabling (if for a short period), Here is how.

# Important

Changes you make to files while SELinux is disabled may give them an unexpected security label, and new files will not have a label. You may need to relabel part or all of the file system after re-enabling SELinux.

Command Line

From the command line, you can edit the /etc/sysconfig/selinux file. This file is a symlink to/etc/selinux/config. The configuration file is self-explanatory. Changing the value of SELINUX orSELINUXTYPE changes the state of SELinux and the name of the policy to be used the next time the system boots.

[root@host2a ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/selinux
# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
#       enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
#       permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
#       disabled - SELinux is fully disabled.
SELINUX=permissive
# SELINUXTYPE= type of policy in use. Possible values are:
#       targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
#       strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

# SETLOCALDEFS= Check local definition changes
SETLOCALDEFS=0

At the prompt type :

echo 0 > /selinux/enforce

From the GUI

Use the following procedure to change the mode of SELinux using the GUI.

 

# Note

Changes made using this dialog box are immediately reflected in /etc/sysconfig/selinux.