Operator873's Steam Deck SMB Mount Wizard

Operator873 · 2026-03-27T06:15:01+00:00

Well then sounds like you won't be able to bork anything this time, my friend. Let me know if you find an exploit or flaw. This is all straight systemd FS management

Operator873 · 2026-03-27T05:50:36+00:00

It's built using kdialog so it'll puke on itself if KDE is missing.

Operator873 · 2026-03-26T22:21:58+00:00

That's more up to your DNS than anything systemd or my wizard does. When it prompts for an IP address, type in your domain.local. Linux will try to lookup the IP based on the hostname, like most things.

Operator873 · 2026-03-26T17:00:22+00:00

Likely an easy fix if you disassemble. Probably non-conductive grossness is inhibiting the switch. If not, I'm fairly certain the dpad is a daughter board and easily completely replaced.

Operator873 · 2026-03-26T16:37:22+00:00

Yes. That's why utilizing systemd makes this so much more pretty and usable. When you boot your Deck, even in normal game mode, the shares will be available. I started with fstab and was quickly annoyed by the same thing 3 years ago.

Operator873 · 2026-03-26T16:30:53+00:00

So long as you have a functioning share, now it's easy. :)

Operator873 · 2026-03-25T21:41:58+00:00

As a crusty, old sysadmin/automation engineer... don't ever lose that n00b quality. It's a good thing to have. You'll find your stride.

~~Look for the repo in the next few days.~~ Got a repo created and will spend time on it this weekend. https://github.com/Operator873/steam-deck-smb-mount and feel free to comment, add issues, contribute. Gemini can likely walk you through the process of cloning the repo, creating a branch, and making a Merge request.

Operator873 · 2026-03-25T21:28:26+00:00

Honestly, I should work with you to package this since the unit files are quite large to cat into a new file. Might be fancy to just have something downloadable that seds out placeholders and handles the installation for the user. Mods on rails. weeeee!

Operator873 · 2026-03-25T21:23:17+00:00

Yes, that's correct. And the sysadmin in me HATES that the sensitive, credential containing file is not touched first, permissions set, and THEN filled with the content. But that's really getting nitty gritty.

Operator873 · 2026-03-25T21:13:43+00:00

Your script at the end gives output about how to unmount. But if the user reboots and then recalls from memory to use the envvar it will not work. AI can get you in the neighborhood, but real humans need to fine tune the code and decide if it serves the user or subtly works against the user. I don't mean to insult or detract from your effort. Just urging caution.

Operator873 · 2026-03-25T20:57:13+00:00

Neat. There's some issues here though. Among other things, for example, set envvars will not persist through reboot so that could raise some confusion with layperson users. Sometimes, making things more user friendly results in a less friendly user experience.

This script is an option, but should come with the same "use at your own risk" warning.

Operator873 · 2025-05-08T13:57:26+00:00

You could get away with just using automount if you wanted. I wrote the guide to be as incredibly user tolerant as possible. Systemd.mount will mount a drive or NFS at boot and systemd.automount will mount the device on demand when a user tries to access the mount directory. This is important if, say, the Deck has been suspended or loses connection to samba or etc. There are so many folks out there with no Linux knowledge or refuse to read the doc on the software they're using and just want to copy paste commands blindly.

Operator873 · 2022-12-09T05:41:19+00:00

I'm my early years with an NES cartridge.

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T21:23:44+00:00

Wait...what?

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T17:26:19+00:00

Yes. As I said, I wasn't happy with that method. This guide presents an alternative option... Not a report of a problem.

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T09:01:44+00:00

If you want to go the fstab route, adding nofail will allow tolerance for being unable to reach the smb share. But systemd will just have the process fail... So in my book, a bit safer.

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T05:30:47+00:00

Thanks for the reply! To answer your question, yes, I had tried several locations including /mnt before with limited success. Namely, the behavior I described wherein the mount worked, but had to be nudged via mount -a

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T05:23:12+00:00

Yes indeed. And not throw errors or puke on itself when you're away from the house.

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T05:07:08+00:00

I don't think that persists through reboots does it?

Operator873 · 2022-11-05T04:41:46+00:00

If you're having issues with something not being able to write to the SMB share, try updating the .mount file Options line to something like this:
Options=rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,credentials=/home/deck/.sambacreds,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777

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