Cash Register; Requirements; Operating System - Novell SLRS 8 Admin Manual

2 Architectural Overview

2.3 Cash Register

The cash registers (POS) are specialized systems based on an x86 32-bit ar-
chitecture. Some are diskless systems and some have internal hard drives or
other persistent media (flash drive or other) that can be used for application
data or the operating system.

2.3.1 Requirements

The capability to boot from the network via PXE is required for the POS.

2.3.2 Operating System

The operating system is a minimal operating environment for the specialized
POS application. Different functionality level systems exist, from an extremely
small console-based system to a feature-rich java and browser capable system
and a system with a customized desktop environment.
A set of standard prebuilt POS images are provided with the SLRS. The system
images can be created on an administration server by system administrators
using the SLRS imageBuilder to provide new releases of POS images or to
extend the default POS images for new or customized features.
Each POS terminal gets a system image based on the branch in which it is
located and its hardware type or its individual configuration. If no image is
specified for the model type and the individual POS terminal, a global default
image is loaded.
The cash register applications are integrated into the images. Customization
is performed by loading local configuration files into the file systems over the
network during boot time. The actual operating system images contain a set
of common components (specified in the section about the common operating
system base) and additional features for the different requirements of the
applications.
Common Operating System Base
All system images are built from a common operating system base. This plat-
form is created from standard SLRS and SLES packages. The POS system
image contains the following components:
Kernel modules for hardware, file system, and network support
GLIBC and STDLIBC++ libraries
Bash and base file handling utility
xntp client for time synchronization
Multicast TFTP capable TFTP client (atftp)
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