diff --git a/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/samba.conf b/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/samba.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bb5e2f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mkosi.extra/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/samba.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only OR GPL-3.0-only OR LicenseRef-KDE-Accepted-GPL
+# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: none
+
+# Work around this directory not already existing, causing smb.service to fail.
+# KDE Linux needs everything to be bootstrapped out of /usr, hence the requirement
+# to create this using tmpfiles.
+
+#Type Path                                     Mode User Group      Age Argument
+d     /var/lib/samba/private                   0700 root root       -   -