MySQL Service Control

MySQL Service Control is a small Tauri desktop app for Linux that lets you start, stop, restart, enable, disable, and inspect the mysqld service from a simple UI.

This project is intentionally narrow. It is not a SQL client, it does not manage database users, and it does not send SQL queries to MySQL. It only controls the Linux service.

Release builds are published in three Linux-friendly formats:

• AppImage for broad Linux compatibility
• DEB for Debian and Ubuntu based distributions
• RPM for Fedora and other RPM based distributions

Screenshot

Features

• Check the current mysqld status
• Start the service
• Stop the service
• Restart the service
• Enable the service to start at boot
• Disable the service from starting at boot
• Refresh the service state at any time
• Show command output and setup-related errors in the UI

Quick Start

1. Make sure your machine uses Linux with systemd.
2. Confirm the MySQL service name is mysqld.
3. Add a restricted sudoers rule for systemctl start|stop|restart|enable|disable mysqld.
4. Validate the commands in the terminal.
5. Run the Tauri app.

Requirements

• Linux with systemd
• A mysqld systemd unit available on the machine
• sudo installed
• A user account allowed to run the required systemctl commands without an interactive password prompt
• Node.js, Yarn, and Rust tooling for local development

Sudoers Setup

Create a dedicated sudoers rule that only allows the required commands.

Run visudo and add a rule like this, replacing youruser with your Linux username:

youruser ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl start mysqld, /usr/bin/systemctl stop mysqld, /usr/bin/systemctl restart mysqld, /usr/bin/systemctl enable mysqld, /usr/bin/systemctl disable mysqld

On some distributions, systemctl may live in a different path. Check it with:

which systemctl

After that, validate the rule before using the app:

sudo -n systemctl start mysqld
sudo -n systemctl stop mysqld
sudo -n systemctl restart mysqld
sudo -n systemctl enable mysqld
sudo -n systemctl disable mysqld

If those commands still ask for a password or fail with a sudo policy error, the app will not be able to perform service actions.

How It Works

The Tauri backend runs a fixed set of Linux commands and sends the result back to the React frontend.

The current commands are:

• systemctl is-active mysqld
• systemctl is-enabled mysqld
• sudo -n systemctl start mysqld
• sudo -n systemctl stop mysqld
• sudo -n systemctl restart mysqld
• sudo -n systemctl enable mysqld
• sudo -n systemctl disable mysqld

The -n flag keeps sudo non-interactive so the desktop app does not block on a password prompt.

Security Model

The app does not execute arbitrary shell commands.

It only calls a fixed set of systemctl operations for mysqld. This keeps the scope intentionally narrow and easier to audit in an open-source setting.

Development

Install dependencies:

yarn install

Run the frontend in development mode:

yarn dev

Run the Tauri desktop app:

yarn tauri dev

Build the frontend:

yarn build

Check the Rust backend:

cd src-tauri
cargo check

Manual Testing

Use docs/manual-testing.md as the release checklist for Linux verification, sudoers validation, and screenshot capture.

CI

The repository includes a basic GitHub Actions workflow that runs:

• yarn build
• cargo check

On Linux CI runners, the workflow installs the native GTK/GLib development packages required by Tauri before running cargo check.

Troubleshooting

sudo: a password is required

Your sudoers rule is missing, too broad, too narrow, or using the wrong systemctl path.

Check:

• the output of which systemctl
• the exact username in the sudoers entry
• whether sudo -n systemctl restart mysqld works in the terminal

Unit mysqld.service could not be found

Your distribution may use a different unit name such as mysql.

Check available units with:

systemctl list-units --type=service | grep -E 'mysql|mysqld'

If your machine uses a different unit name, update the SERVICE_NAME constant in src-tauri/src/main.rs before building.

systemctl is missing or not working

This app is only intended for systemd-based Linux environments.

If the machine does not use systemd, service control will not work.

AppImage fails on Fedora with EGL, GTK, or WebKit warnings

If the AppImage starts with errors such as EGL_BAD_PARAMETER, GTK parsing warnings, or WebKit process startup issues, prefer the native RPM package instead of the AppImage on Fedora.

The release workflow publishes an .rpm package specifically for Fedora and other RPM-based distributions, and that package is the recommended install path there.

The app only shows status but actions fail

This usually means:

• systemctl is-active mysqld works without privilege
• but sudo -n systemctl start|stop|restart mysqld is not allowed yet

Re-check your sudoers configuration and validate the exact commands manually in the terminal.

GitHub Actions fails on cargo check

If CI fails with errors about glib-2.0, gobject-2.0, or gio-2.0, the Linux runner is missing the native development libraries that Tauri needs.

The repository workflow installs these dependencies before running cargo check. If you create a custom workflow, make sure you install the same Linux packages there as well.

Limitations

• Linux only
• systemd only
• Default target service is mysqld
• No runtime configuration for alternate unit names yet
• Requires passwordless sudo for service-changing actions
• AppImage may behave differently across Linux graphics stacks; RPM is recommended on Fedora when available

License

MIT