CentOS - Dec 2019 - Failed to load SELinux policy- freezing

This is annoying!  I have a CentOS7 virtual machine running on VirtualBox. 
Short version:  At boot the system locks with a message:

"Failed to load SELinux policy, freezing."

VirtualBox thinks it is still running, and I can see it consuming a small amount
of CPU time.  But it never goes past this message.

The problem actually started with a problem in the sound system on this virtual
machine.  It would boot a ways through, then abort with no warning and no
message.  It just went away.  Looking at the VirtualBox log file, I saw that the
last line in the file was something about failing to initialize a stream
associated with PulseAudio.  In VirtualBox settings for the machine I disabled
all audio.  It then booted.

I was in the process of gathering information for a problem report at VB when it
started giving the message about SELinux policy.  There were several aborts
including one where it almost got to loading the X server and going graphical.

SELinux is disabled on the computer, so I don't understand why it is even
trying to load a policy.

Is there a kernel parameter I can give it to stop SELinux?  Is there any other
way to get past this message?

-- 
Bill Gee

Never mind - I figured it out.  Adding "selinux=0" to the kernel
options let it boot.  I reinstalled the package for selinux-policy-targeted and
now it boots normally - if the audio configuration is set right.

Now to figure out why it won't boot when the audio configuration in
VirtualBox is set for PulseAudio.  If I set it for ALSA, then it works.  But it
worked with PulseAudio for years, and other Linux VMs on the same host work with
PulseAudio.

That is not a question for this group.  I will pose it on the VirtualBox forums.
In fact, I DID post it, two years ago, but never received any kind of answer. 
The VM in that case was on the same host but has now gone away for unrelated
reasons.

-- 
Bill Gee



On Thursday, December 5, 2019 1:40:28 PM CST Bill Gee
wrote:
> This is annoying!  I have a CentOS7 virtual machine running on VirtualBox. 
Short version:  At boot the system locks with a message:
> 
> "Failed to load SELinux policy, freezing."
> 
> VirtualBox thinks it is still running, and I can see it consuming a small
amount of CPU time.  But it never goes past this message.
> 
> The problem actually started with a problem in the sound system on this
virtual machine.  It would boot a ways through, then abort with no warning and
no message.  It just went away.  Looking at the VirtualBox log file, I saw that
the last line in the file was something about failing to initialize a stream
associated with PulseAudio.  In VirtualBox settings for the machine I disabled
all audio.  It then booted.
> 
> I was in the process of gathering information for a problem report at VB
when it started giving the message about SELinux policy.  There were several
aborts including one where it almost got to loading the X server and going
graphical.
> 
> SELinux is disabled on the computer, so I don't understand why it is
even trying to load a policy.
> 
> Is there a kernel parameter I can give it to stop SELinux?  Is there any
other way to get past this message?
> 
>