I did try that but I was rushed and failed to specify it… my apologies. It failed the same way.
I did try that as follows. In src/rockstor/scripts/__init__.py:
import os
os.environ["DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE"] = "settings"
os.environ["PASSWORD_STORE_DIR"] = "/root/.password-store" # new line
import django # noqa E402
django.setup()
/etc/samba/smb.conf remained as produced by Rockstor.
It does seem to fix it as I can connect to that same samba share just fine.
To confirm the need for setting that env variable continuously, I commented out that new line and I could no longer access the Samba share in question, seeing the same 'Error: password store is empty. Try "pass init".' error as before.
@Hooverdan, @phillxnet: I’m not familiar with pass yet when compared to both of you so does that seem like an appropriate fix to you?