Building a Near-Zero CPU Linux Settings Center in Rust (settings-tui)

Description and use

settings‑tui is a lightweight terminal UI for Linux system settings, built in Rust with Ratatui, that consolidates network, audio, Bluetooth, display, power, and systemd controls into a single, near‑zero CPU usage interface.

Problem

Desktop Linux users on tiling window managers struggle to remember many CLI commands or install heavy GUI control centers.

Outcome

settings‑tui offers a lightweight, transactional terminal UI that replaces heavy GUI control centers and reduces the need to remember numerous CLI commands, while maintaining near‑zero CPU usage.

Workflow

• Launch settings‑tui via npx or cargo run
• Select subsystem (Network, Audio, Bluetooth, Displays, Power, Systemd)
• Perform actions (scan, connect, adjust volume, change resolution, etc.)
• Engine reads current state, mutates, waits for propagation, reads canonical state, verifies postcondition
• Display status badge if operation fails

Evidence

I built settings‑tui to bridge that gap with a unified, hyper‑lightweight (<9MB, near 0% idle CPU) terminal control center written in Rust with Ratatui.

Source

Network: Wi‑Fi network scanning, WPA/WPA2 interactive password modals, and Ethernet stats via NetworkManager D‑Bus.

Source

The Transaction Engine implements a transactional lifecycle: READ CURRENT STATE -> MUTATE -> BOUNDED PROPAGATION WAIT -> READ CANONICAL STATE -> VERIFY POSTCONDITION.

Source