Tim Hall has posted a blog entry about installing Oracle on RHEL 5. There are URLs in the blog entry that provide very step-by-step install directions. I wanted to point out, however, that in one of the URLs the stipulation is made that Secure Linux (SELinux) is presumed to be disabled but I didn’t see tips on how to do that. The topic of disabling SELinux also came up in the comments thread of a post I did about applying the 10.2.0.3 patchset on RHEL4.
Red Hat dedicates a webpage to the topic of disabling SELinux.
All that aside, a friend of mine (works for Red Hat) is actually doing the Oracle Certification of RHEL5. I think I’ll wait until he is done before I “try the water.”
Kevin Closson's Blog: Platforms, Databases and Storage 
Nice little plug:
http://kevin.hatfieldfamilysite.com/?p=104
-Bob
Hi.
Just thought I’d point out, the method for switching off SELinux is present in the article. Look at the last step before the Setup section.
Also, if you follow the OS installation article linked to in the article, this shows you how to switch off SELinux during the installation.
Regarding using RHEL5, it’s still in beta, so using it for real isn’t sensible. I’m just playing with the beta, so I’m ready when the production version is released and certified. 🙂
Cheers
Tim…
OK, Tim, thanks. So two things are now true, I didn’t see it and I didn’t look close enough! Argh, sorry. I think your article was helpful and of course you weren’t recommending plunging into production with RHEL5 before Oracle “blesses” it (whatever that really means anymore).
I believe it means it’s unbreakable! 🙂
hi Kevin,
I am assuming you are the same Kevin that worked for PolyServe?
Bob.
W.L. Gore & Associates
Robert,
https://kevinclosson.wordpress.com/about/
selinux is disabled by editing /etc/selinux/config and changing.
SELINUX=disabled
SELINUX=permissive works for single instance installs, if you set it before you start the install. I haven’t tried a RAC install with permissive.
CRS definitely is not happy about SELINUX=enabled (you get a n-way split brain cluster – nice). Remember to turn off iptables too
this is what I typically dump for an RDBMS kernel install:
chkconfig –level 35 kudzu off
chkconfig –level 35 auditd off
chkconfig –level 35 cpuspeed off
chkconfig –level 35 ip6tables off
chkconfig –level 35 iptables off
chkconfig –level 35 cpuspeed off
chkconfig –level 35 isdn off
chkconfig –level 35 auditd off
chkconfig –level 35 restorecond off
chkconfig –level 35 mcstrans off
chkconfig –level 35 anacron off
chkconfig –level 35 crond off
chkconfig –level 35 yum-updatesd off
chkconfig –level 35 avahi-daemon off
chkconfig –level 35 cups off
chkconfig –level 35 firstboot off
chkconfig –level 35 sendmail off
chkconfig –level 35 messagebus off
chkconfig –level 35 gpm off
chkconfig –level 35 hidd off
chkconfig –level 35 autofs off
chkconfig –level 35 rhnsd off
chkconfig –level 35 atd off
chkconfig –level 35 pcscd off
chkconfig –level 35 bluetooth off
chkconfig –level 35 mdmonitor off
chkconfig –level 35 pcscd off