I know a lot of people are recommending fstsb entries, but since you’re using a DE, you can have the credential stored in the wallet / session manager for your DE. KDE and Gnome should both have an automount option using keys from there. Then you also can find a preference somewhere to unlock your wallet / session keys thing on login. Bing bang boom you should have it mount and unlock automatically without having to enter any extra stuff with the added benefit of not leaving the key around (though since it seems you have FDE anyway that’s a minor issue depending on your threat model)

😅🤦 I feel like a fool

I don’t mean to pry but sausage in general, especially seemingly chili cheese sausage, has an incredible amount of fat (that is not to say the fat is bad, subtypes and fatty acid chain length are important to note), wouldn’t this be counter to your point? Unless the chili cheese smoked sausages are some Franken-Sausage (lol) that is super lean.