Plan the settings work beyond GNOME parity
Parity is done except for Color, which the platform blocks. This is the other direction: what a settings application should own on a machine whose owner runs the servers. Every item was checked against this machine before being written down, including the one that was dropped -- a VPN page, because the WireGuard tunnel lives on the router and neither wg nor tailscale is installed here, so it would have had nothing to drive. Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01BRvzt4H8XXLPVH5MyYdk9L
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Gabriel Brown
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# Settings beyond GNOME
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Written 2026-08-19, after the last GNOME panel worth owning was taken.
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The goal has changed. Up to now the target was parity: make GNOME Settings
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unnecessary. That is done except for Color, which is blocked by the platform
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rather than by effort. What follows is the other direction — the things a
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settings application should own on *this* machine, which neither macOS nor
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Windows can offer because neither assumes you run your own infrastructure.
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Everything below was checked against this machine before it was written. Where
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something is not possible, it says so and why.
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---
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## What is already true
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| | |
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|---|---|
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| `dnf5`, `dnf`, `flatpak` | present; **2 flatpak updates pending** at time of writing |
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| `firewalld`, `nmcli` | present |
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| `podman` | 22 images, 5.31 GB reclaimable |
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| `gamemoded`, `mangohud` | present; Steam library is 1.2 TB |
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| Nextcloud client | installed and running |
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| `rustdesk` | installed |
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| Self-hosted services | cloud, git, home, agentchat all answering over HTTPS |
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| `wg`, `tailscale` | **absent** — the WireGuard tunnel lives on the router, not here |
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That last row matters: a VPN page on this machine would have nothing to drive.
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Skipped for that reason, not forgotten.
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---
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## Batch 1 — Keeping the machine current
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The clearest "this OS is unfinished" gap. Both macOS and Windows put this front
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and centre; here you update in a terminal.
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### 1.1 Software Update
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- Pending updates by source (dnf and flatpak, counted separately because they
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fail separately), download size, and which are security fixes.
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- Whether a kernel update means a reboot, stated plainly rather than implied.
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- When it last checked, and a switch for automatic updates (`dnf-automatic`).
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- Update history, and what `dnf history undo` can and cannot reverse.
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**Mechanism.** `dnf5` has machine-readable output; `flatpak remote-ls --updates`
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is already scriptable. Applying updates needs root, so pkexec, prompting through
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the agent that is already running.
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**Deliberately excluded.** Automatic *unattended* installation of anything but
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security updates. A machine that reboots itself into a new kernel while you are
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mid-sentence is not a feature.
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### 1.2 Snapshot before updating
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The reason to do updates first. Snapper is wired up as of yesterday, so an
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update can take a restore point before it touches anything — with the snapshot
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named after the transaction, so the Snapshots page shows *"before 47 package
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updates"* rather than a timestamp.
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Neither macOS nor Windows does this cleanly. It is the single most distinctive
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thing on this list and it is nearly free now.
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**Done when** the machine can be brought fully current from Settings, and going
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back is one click on a page that already exists.
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---
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## Batch 2 — Your infrastructure
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The part no shipped operating system has, because no shipped operating system
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assumes the user runs the servers.
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### 2.1 Services
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A page listing your self-hosted services with reachability, TLS certificate
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expiry, and version where the service exposes one.
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**Mechanism.** Endpoints stored as a preference (so the list is yours, not
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hardcoded); an HTTP HEAD per endpoint and an `openssl s_client` for expiry.
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**Deliberately a status view, not management.** Settings will not administer a
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VPS. "Is my stuff up, and does anything expire soon" is the question worth
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answering here; anything more belongs in the service's own admin surface.
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**Watch for.** Certificate expiry is the row that earns this page. It is also
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the one that must never report a false green — a check that fails should say
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"could not check", never "fine".
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### 2.2 Nextcloud
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The iCloud Drive equivalent, and the reason this list exists rather than a
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OneDrive page. Sync state, which folders, quota, conflicts, pause and resume.
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**Mechanism.** The desktop client is running; its configuration is readable and
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`nextcloudcmd` exists. **Risk to check first:** the client's status surface may
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be too thin to drive a page honestly. If it is, this becomes a smaller card —
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"syncing / paused / N conflicts" and a button to open the client — rather than
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a pretend management panel.
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### 2.3 RustDesk
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The peer to the RDP controls already built. ID, whether unattended access is on,
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and — the part that matters to you — whether it is pointed at your own relay or
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the public one.
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**Mechanism.** `rustdesk --get-id`, plus its config. Credentials follow the same
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rule as everywhere else: never through Panama, never on a command line.
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---
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## Batch 3 — Machine control
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### 3.1 Firewall
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You expose services, so this is worth owning. Zones, what is open, and which
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zone a connection is in.
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**Mechanism.** `firewall-cmd`, which is fully scriptable, plus polkit for
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changes.
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**Deliberately excluded.** Rich rules and direct rules. They are a syntax, not a
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setting, and a settings page that half-supports a syntax is a trap.
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**This one is security-sensitive**: every change must state what it exposes,
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and closing a port someone is currently connected over should say so first.
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### 3.2 Containers
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podman is here and Storage already found 5.31 GB of reclaimable images. Running
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containers, images, disk, logs, start and stop.
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**Deliberately excluded.** Building images and editing compose files. That is a
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development tool, not a setting.
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### 3.3 Gaming
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You have `gamemoded`, `mangohud`, and a terabyte of Steam. Windows has Game
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Mode; macOS added one.
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Gamemode status and which process triggered it; the MangoHud overlay and preset;
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how it pairs with the power profile Settings already controls; Proton versions;
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where the library lives.
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**Watch for.** This is the page most likely to become a dumping ground. It
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should own the handful of things that are actually settings and link out for the
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rest.
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---
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## Batch 4 — The developer surface
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### 4.1 SSH and keys
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Keys, agent state, known hosts, per-host configuration. Neither macOS nor
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Windows does this well, and this machine has a pile of `ksshaskpass` entries in
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the keyring already.
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**Rules carried from the keyring work.** A private key is never read, never
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displayed, and never leaves its file. The page manages *which* keys exist and
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what they are for.
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### 4.2 Settings that follow you
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`SettingsBackup` already exists. Nextcloud as transport would make Panama
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settings arrive on another machine.
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**Watch for.** Machine-specific values — monitor layout, device names — must not
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follow. A sync that carries a display arrangement to a laptop with one screen is
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worse than no sync.
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---
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## Cross-cutting, and worth more than any single page
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**Make snapshots ambient.** Now that they exist, anything risky can offer to
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take one first: updates, restoring defaults, firewall changes. This is the
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thread that makes a settings application feel *safe* rather than merely capable,
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and it is cheap everywhere it applies.
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**Make findings actionable.** Storage reports 86 GB in the trash and 5.31 GB of
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reclaimable images, then leaves you to deal with it. The offer belongs next to
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the finding — carefully, since these are the destructive ones.
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---
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## Principles this plan inherits
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Every one of these was learned the hard way in the work before it.
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- **No switch that lies.** If the mechanism cannot act — Color's missing
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devices, snapper's overridden rollback, a driver we cannot choose — the page
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says so instead of offering a control that changes nothing.
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- **A write is not done until it is read back.** The failure that made "some
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things in the settings app don't work" true was a refresh that silently no-oped
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after a successful write.
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- **Guards read the object, not a binding over it.** A derived property is stale
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inside the handler that changes it.
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- **A test must be seen to fail.** "Something returned an error" is not evidence
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that your own code refused it; assert the reason.
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- **Check what exists before writing a file.** Two components were overwritten in
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one session by not looking first.
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---
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## Order, and why
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Batch 1 first: it is the biggest gap, it is self-contained, and the snapshot
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pairing makes it distinctive rather than a copy of someone else's panel.
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Batch 2 second: Services is read-only, which makes it low-risk and high-value,
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and it is the page that makes this feel like *your* operating system.
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Batch 3 and 4 in either order. Firewall is the most valuable of the remainder
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and also the one that most deserves care.
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