Automount SMB under Bazzite by using systemd

automountSmbUnderBazzite.md

Automount SMB under Bazzite

Make sure that you replace whatever is in "<>" with your own data.

Setup authentication configuration file

Generate a file that defines the login data to mount the volume. The file will be called credentials located at /var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials. Make sure you first generate the folder mkdir /var/home/<username>/.smb.

username=<username>
password=<password>

• Ensure the credentials file is readable only by the owner: chmod u=rw,go= /var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials
• Create a mount folder on your local machine: mkdir /var/home/<username>/retrodeck
• Create a file called var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount located at /etc/systemd/system. sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount.

Create mount unit

[Unit]
Description=Mount SMB Retrodeck Share
# A human-readable description of this mount unit.

# Ensures the network is available before trying to mount.
Requires=network-online.target
# This unit will only start if 'network-online.target' is available.
After=network-online.target systemd-resolved.service
# Waits until network and DNS resolution are ready.
Wants=network-online.target systemd-resolved.service
# Suggests that these services should be running, but does not fail if they aren't.

[Mount]
# Defines what to mount and where.

# The network share (SMB/CIFS) that will be mounted.
What=//<yourRemoteServerIP>/<yourRemoteFolder>
# Replace with actual IP and share name, e.g., //192.168.1.100/retrodeck.

# Local mount point where the share will be attached.
Where=/var/home/<username>/retrodeck
# Replace <username> and <retrodeck> with actual values. Make sure that it matches with the folder you create as mount folder.

# Specifies the filesystem type.
Type=cifs
# This is necessary for mounting a Windows SMB/CIFS share.

# Mount options:
Options=rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,nofail,credentials=/var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials,vers=3.0
# `rw`          → Read/write access.
# `uid=1000`    → Ensures that the mounted files are owned by user ID 1000 (your main user).
# `gid=1000`    → Ensures group ownership by group ID 1000.
# `nofail`      → Prevents boot failure if the SMB share is unavailable.
# `credentials=/var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials` → Specifies the file storing the SMB username & password.
# `vers=3.0`    → Forces SMB version 3.0 for security and performance.

# Sets a timeout to stop trying if the mount hangs.
TimeoutSec=30
# If the mount attempt takes longer than 30 seconds, it will give up.

[Install]
# Ensures this mount is activated at boot.
WantedBy=multi-user.target
# Mounts the share when the system reaches multi-user mode (normal operation).

Set mount unit file permissions

• Make sure you have set the correct permissions and ownership for systemd mount files.
• Correct Owner and Group: sudo chown root:root /etc/systemd/system/var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount
• Correct File Permissions: sudo chmod u=rw,g=r,o=r /etc/systemd/system/var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount (u=rw → User (root) gets read & write; g=r → Group (root) gets read-only.; o=r → Others get read-only)

Fixing SELinux Denial (under Bazzite)

By default Systemd is being denied access to the mount unit file due to SELinux policies.

Check Current SELinux Mode

Run:

getenforce

• If it returns Enforcing, SELinux is actively blocking access.
• If it returns Permissive, it logs issues but doesn’t enforce them.

Relabel the Mount Unit File

Since the file is in /etc/systemd/system/, it should have the correct SELinux label. To fix it:

sudo restorecon -v /etc/systemd/system/var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount

Now reload Systemd, enable Auto-Start, and start the SMB mount immediately

• Reload Systemd to recognize New or modified units: sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  • Forces systemd to reload all unit files (services, mounts, timers, etc.).
  • Necessary when adding, modifying, or deleting .mount files, since systemd does not automatically detect changes.
  • Without this, systemd might not recognize new or modified units, leading to errors when enabling or starting them.
• Enable the mount to Auto-Start at boot: sudo systemctl enable var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount
  • Creates a symbolic link in /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ pointing to your mount file.
  • Ensures that systemd automatically mounts the SMB share every time the system boots.
  • This does not immediately mount it—it just sets it up for future boots.
• Start (mount) the SMB share immediately: sudo systemctl start var-home-<username>-retrodeck.mount
  • Manually triggers the mounting of the SMB share right now, without waiting for a reboot.
  • If successful, the mount point (/var/home/<username>/retrodeck) should now show the contents of the SMB share.
  • If there are errors (e.g., wrong credentials, network issues), it will fail, but logs can be checked using journalctl -xe.

@axelquack, thank you so much for this write up! Something like this should be in the official documentation. Something I tweaked was adding ,x-gvfs-name=<mount_folder>. This made the name far more friendly in Dolphin in KDE. Unsure if this would work in Gnome and whatever it uses but it cleaned it up very nicely for me.

Thanks for this guide. I had an extra issue that I thought others might also get, so wanted to write up my alternative version for the record.

I had an issue where copying and pasting my intended mounted folder into a music player as a library location caused it to be replaced with a different path. The new path worked, but was temporary - after a reboot the mount path changed, which meant the library had to be edited and rebuilt each time.

I searched several different ways of doing this and played around with fstab settings and manual systemd mount/automount files. I finally succeeded with the following configuration: use fstab to create the systemd files AND use a directory in /mnt as the target. Also, I got rid of lots of the various options for the entry in fstab.

I haven't tested exactly what causes it to get swapped out, it may just be one of the changes I ended up making, but the following worked for me.

INSTRUCTIONS

Code replacements to make:
<server IP> = IP address of SMB server you want to mount
<share folder> = path to the folder on the server you want to mount
<mount folder> = name of folder you want the server contents to show up in
<username> = your username on your PC
<server username> = your username on the server
<server password> = your password on the server

Follow OP's instructions to create and configure the credentials file under 'Setup authentication configuration file'. Do NOT do the last two bullet points.

In a terminal, create a folder in the /mnt directory with root permissions:
sudo mkdir /var/mnt/<mount folder>

open /etc/fstab in a text editor, add the following as a line at the end:
//<server IP>/<share folder> /var/mnt/<mount folder> cifs credentials=/var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials,x-systemd.automount 0 0

What this line does:
//<server IP>/<share folder> = says what you want to mount
/var/mnt/<mount folder> = says where to mount it
cifs = the option for SMB connections
credentials=/var/home/<username>/.smb/credentials = safer than just putting your username and password in fstab directly
x-systemd.automount = tells fstab to make configuration files for systemd to then handle the mounting (not sure if this is necessary, but it is what worked for me)
0 0 = I dunno tbh, it's just what everyone says you need at the end

This never worked reliably for me with a hostname in the What field, lamenting unknown errors while attempting to resolve the hostname.

I got it to work however by creating a .automount file alongside the .mount file.
Note I reduced the timeout to 15 seconds, as it'll usually be a LAN mount it shouldn't take too long to connect and login...

.mount file:

[Unit]
Description=Mount SMB Share
Requires=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
Wants=network-online.target

[Mount]
What=//my-hostname/share
Where=/var/home/bazzite/share
Type=cifs
Options=rw,uid=1000,gid=1000,nofail,credentials=/var/home/bazzite/.smb/credentials,vers=3.0,_netdev
TimeoutSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

At this point, it's not a bad idea to also add ,x-gvfs-name=<pretty_name> in order to show a pretty name in Dolphin.

.automount file:

Description=Automount SMB Share

[Automount]
Where=/var/home/bazzite/share

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Then enable the automount unit: systemctl enable var-home-bazzite-share.automount