How to Enable/Disable SElinux in Linux Distributions

Some of the Linux Distributions comes with SElinux installed, for example on Oracle Linux 7 (OL7), SELinux services were installed by default.

Selinux can block the user from stopping certain system applications or deleting some files as it is a security application.

First check the status of SELinux to see if it’s enabled or not with this command :

$ sestatus

The first line of the output should tell you the status of SElinux like this:

---

For disabling SElinux open the config file by typing :

$ sudo vim /etc/selinux/config

Change the following line :

SELINUX=enforcing

like this to disabled:

SELINUX=disabled

SElinux should now be disabled, reboot the operating system for the changes to take effect.

For enabling simply change the disabled to enforcing.