Steam Deck

Create mount directory

mkdir -p /home/deck/ROMs

Make sure your credentials file is correct

~/.smbcredentials

Contents:

username=YOURUSERNAME
password=YOURPASSWORD

Correct permissions:

chmod 600 ~/.smbcredentials

Create the systemd mount unit

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/home-deck-ROMs.mount

[Unit]
Description=SMB Share for ROMs
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Mount]
What=//192.168.1.23/ROMs
Where=/home/deck/ROMs
Type=cifs
Options=credentials=/home/deck/.smbcredentials,vers=3.0,uid=1000,gid=1000,file_mode=0644,dir_mode=0755,actimeo=1,nounix,_netdev

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Important: The filename must match the mount path using systemd’s naming rules:

/home/deck/ROMs → home-deck-ROMs.mount

Create the automount unit (optional but recommended)

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/home-deck-ROMs.automount

Paste:

[Unit]
Description=Automount SMB Share for ROMs

[Automount]
Where=/home/deck/ROMs

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Enable + start both units

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now home-deck-ROMs.automount

Systemd will not mount it immediately — because automount waits until something touches the folder. To trigger it:

ls /home/deck/ROMs

If successful, your SMB share mounts instantly.