I bricked my computer with SE Linux - Please Help

tristeng · #1 7th October 2008, 06:37 AM

So...I was trying to get a django project running with apache and mod_python and ran into some SE Linux denials...instead of just disabling it (I'm regretting even installing it right now) I followed the instructions it gave me in order to give httpd access to a library in lib64 and lib (if I remember correctly) called ld.so or something like that...immediately I found that SE Linux was denying me the ability to log in as root (some chk_pwd denial). Stupidly, I closed my terminal where I had root access and tried to reboot...but oh no, SE Linux won't let me do that either...so I hard reboot and all hell breaks loose, basically nothing works, and I can't even get a command line. So I try the install CD hoping I can do a rescue...guess what? My keyboard and mouse don't work on the screen where it asks you if you want to do the rescue installation. My only apparent option is to re-install fresh...unless someone out there can tell me how to get around this...I couldn't find a rescue CD ISO anywhere, is there one? Is there a way to bypass SE Linux so I can undo my changes? Is there a way to remove it entirely? I partitioned my drive in the way the Fedora install documentation said I should...is there anyway I can recover this data if I re-install?

Please...someone help me...I was smart enough to backup my code to another machine, but still, re-installing fresh is a royal pain.

Tristen

daverj · #2 7th October 2008, 06:48 AM

You should be able to fix it by booting into single user mode, as I don't think selinux gets enabled with a single user mode boot. After you get to the prompt:

Code:

cd /etc/sysconfig
vi selinux   (make the changes you need to disable it. The file itself tells you what the options need to be.)

reboot.

If that does not work, try booting into emergency mode. That is the most minimal boot possible. I cannot imagine selinux would be enabled.

davidj

dougbunger · #3 7th October 2008, 06:50 AM

During boot, you should be able to access the boot loader and append "selinux=0". This will disable SELinux for the session. Once in, look at /etc/sysconfig/selinux. There should be an option for "selinux=disable". That will disable it on every boot.

daverj · #4 7th October 2008, 06:55 AM

Dougbunger,

I forgot about that. It's a much better solution than mine.

davidj

tristeng · #5 7th October 2008, 05:27 PM

Thanks for the quick reply guys, I will try this when I get home...one other problem I noticed was that when I get to the grub bootloader, neither my mouse or keyboard was responding...but as soon as I get passed that, my keyboard starts working. At this point, can I access the boot loader? Should I enter the interactive mode?

Thanks,

Tristen

tristeng · #6 7th October 2008, 05:42 PM

One other thing, I have a PS/2 keyboard, not USB, I've already googled that...I will try to get into my bios when I get home, but for some reason I don't think the keyboard was working at that time either :-(

Nokia · #7 7th October 2008, 05:51 PM

Try resetting the BIOS.

tristeng · #8 8th October 2008, 04:13 AM

Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are linux gods.

It was quite as simple as you described since my keyboard wasn't working during the grub loader, but I was able to boot in run level 3 using a rescue CD from here:

http://www.sysresccd.org/

Downloaded, burned it, and at boot it was waiting for some input (but again, my keyboard wasn't responding), but it booted after 30 seconds or so...I mounted my drive, and edited the selinux file in /etc/sysconfig, disabling SE Linux.

I will definitely do some reading on SE Linux before playing around with it.

Thanks again guys,

Tristen