How To Disable SELinux on Fedora 39

In this tutorial, we will show you how to disable SELinux on Fedora 39. Security is paramount in the realm of Linux systems, and SELinux stands as a guardian, enhancing the protection of your Fedora 39 installation. While SELinux is an invaluable security feature, certain situations may warrant its temporary or permanent disablement. Before diving into the steps, let’s briefly understand SELinux modes. It operates in three modes: Enforcing, Permissive, and Disabled. In Enforcing mode, SELinux actively denies actions that violate security policies. Permissive mode allows actions but logs policy violations for analysis. Disabling SELinux puts your system in a state where it no longer enforces security policies.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step disable SELinux on a Fedora 39.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the installation process, let’s ensure that you have everything you need:

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Fedora 39.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• You will need access to the terminal to execute commands. Fedora 39 provides the Terminal application for this purpose. It can be found in your Applications menu.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Disable SELinux on Fedora 39

Step 1. Before installing any software, it’s crucial to ensure that your system is up-to-date. Open a terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo dnf clean all
sudo dnf update

This ensures that you have the latest packages and dependencies required for a smooth installation.

Step 2. Checking SELinux Status.

First things first, let’s determine the current status of SELinux on your Fedora 39 system. Open the terminal and enter the following command:

sestatus

This will display information about the SELinux status, mode, and other relevant details. Interpret the output to understand the current state of SELinux.

• Enforcing: SELinux is actively enforcing policies.
• Permissive: SELinux logs policy violations but doesn’t enforce them.
• Disabled: SELinux is, well, disabled

Step 3. Disabling SELinux Temporarily on Fedora 39.

To temporarily disable SELinux and transition to Permissive mode for troubleshooting, use the following steps. Open the terminal and enter the following command:

setenforce 0

Verify the change by running:

sestatus

Step 4. Disabling SELinux Permanently on Fedora 39.

• Method 1:

Persistent disabling ensures SELinux stays inactive even after a system reboot.

Edit the /etc/selinux/config file using a text editor. Change:

SELINUX=enforcing

To

SELINUX=disabled

Save the file and reboot your system.

Verifying the changes post-reboot, confirm SELinux is disabled:

sestatus

• Method 2:

For a permanent SELinux disablement, follow these detailed steps. Open the GRUB configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Locate the line starting with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX and add “selinux=0” to the end of the line.

Before:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rhgb quiet"

After:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rhgb quiet selinux=0"

Save the changes and exit the editor, then update the GRUB configuration:

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Reboot your system to apply the changes:

sudo reboot

Confirm the permanent change by checking SELinux status:

sestatus

Step 5. Common Issues and Troubleshooting.

In case you encounter issues after disabling SELinux, refer to these troubleshooting tips:

1. Unexpected Behavior:

If your system exhibits unexpected behavior, revert to Permissive mode temporarily and analyze the logs:

setenforce 1

Check logs for policy violations:

cat /var/log/audit/audit.log | grep AVC

2. Reverting Changes:

If issues persist, revert the changes made to the GRUB configuration:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Remove “selinux=0” from the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX line and save and update GRUB.

Congratulations! You have successfully disabling SELinux. Thanks for using this tutorial to disable SELinux on your Fedora 39 system. For additional Apache or useful information, we recommend you check the official Fedora website.