Point of Sale for Linux
How do I ?
This short guide will hopefully give you enough information to get you going and be able to start using LinxPos.
What do I need in order to use Linxpos ?
What
distributions are supported ?
Installation of the software
Uninstall the software
Logon for the first time
General Usage
Customizing
your system and setting up your PLU file
What hardware is available and how do I set it up
Can I use it for ASP/Thin Client ?
Prerequisites
The software requires a Linux based computer (obviously!) also it requires that you have correctly installed and configured X Windows. The software is designed so that it can be used on different screen resolutions, from 640x480 to 1024x800 and beyond.
The default configuration installed is 1024x800. If your X windows configuration cannot manage a resolution of at least 1024x800 do this you may not be able to see all of the screen and you will have to alter the default Linxpos setting to use a different ‘skin’. Please mail support@retailxcel.com for details. The default installation is also set up to provide a touch screen function. If you don’t have a touch screen, then for the purposes of trying the software you can use the mouse instead, however this is probably impractical for real use so you can either turn off the ‘on screen’ touch buttons or use a terminal that has touch capability.
We would also recommend having a network card installed and configured before installation of Linxpos.
As mentioned earlier the default installation is set to take advantage of a touch screen these behave as though the user is operating with a mouse. You can use either the on-screen keyboard and buttons or use the keys on your normal keyboard if you wish.
However take care when you press the onscreen keyboard input focus is transferred to the keyboard window this means if you then swap back to using your normal keyboard nothing will happen as the input goes to the on screen keyboard. To swap the input focus back press or click with the mouse anywhere on the input window.
To avoid this complication we would recommend either you use the normal keyboard or use the on screen keys and buttons via the mouse or touch terminal.
For details on what keys do what functions see the note at little further on.
Important! The software is a Point of Sale terminal and is designed to start automatically when the computer is switched on and booted up. The installation program will alter the start up scripts in order to start the software automatically.
Install the software:
Installation of Linxpos is quite simple. It comes as an rpm that can be installed using the rpm utility provided on the system.
The rpms can be downloaded from http://www.retailxcel.com/download
There are different rpms available to suite the distribution you have.
For example LinxPosSE-3.5.0-3.rpm is for the SuSE version 8 distribution.
To install download the relevant rpm file for your distribution.
Then type: rpm –iv LinxPosSE-3.5.0-3.rpm <enter>
(Note: The rpm name may be slightly different depending on what you have downloaded.)
The installation will take a few minutes while the software is loaded and an initial database is created.
Uninstall the software:
To uninstall the software use the rpm command again, firstly go to a console,
Type CTRL + ALT + F2 and logon.
The type:
rpm –e LinxPosSE <enter> (SuSE distribution)
Or
rpm –e LinxPosRH <enter> (Red Hat distribution)
Do you support XYZ distribution?
Presently we only provide distributions that are on our download site however if you want one for another distribution this is not a problem just let us know.
General Usage
We hope you find the system easy to use, if you feel that something is not quite intuitive then please send a mail to feedback@retailxcel.com we are trying to make the system as easy to learn and use as possible.
Logon for the first time
The system once installed creates two users a ‘manager’ (password: manager) and technical ‘setup’ (password ‘setup’) user.
Once you have installed the system it is a good idea to log on as both, you will be forced to change the password of both users the first time you use them. The system will also enforce regular password changes.
Logon screen should look like:
Once you have logged on you can select options from the menu using the up and down arrows and pressing enter. Some menu options leave to further sub menus. The Escape key takes you back a level or cancels an operation.
In general the system will provide pop up menus where it can, this means if for example you are prompted for a department code just press enter and you should get a pop up menu to select from.
Pop-up menus are not available everywhere for example it makes no sense when prompting for a product code.
How to perform a sale?
Logon to the system, and select: Sales & Refunds => Sale
There are many options that can be configured on the system for example, promotions, associated items, reason codes, card capture etc etc. These features are all available however they are a little beyond this simple guide so don’t think the feature isn’t there, it probably is but just needs configuring. However the gist of it is:
All you have to keep in mind during a transaction is that there are three stages, and at each stage you can do different things:
- Entry of an item code (“item entry”)
This is the initial stage here you can:
a. Press escape and return to the menu
b. Enter an item code. You may key a code in, scan it,
c. Select the product via the on screen keyboard (products button)
d. or select an item via the item search function.
Select a depart code for a department sale
b. Select ‘item return’ which means the next item code entered
will be treated as a return item.
c. Go to the payment screen
d. Review the basket of items entered.
- Entry of a quantity (“quantity entry”)
Once you have entered an item code you are prompted for its quantity
at this stage you can:
a. Change the sale quantity
b. Press enter and go back to entering another item
c. Scan another item
d. Select Price override
e. Select Discount
f. Go to the payment screen
- Management of the basket (“transaction management”)
In this mode you can
a. Void items off the sale
b. Apply a transaction level discount
c. Go to the payment screen
d. Go back to entering another item
e. Escape and void the transaction
At any point you can suspend the transaction.
The function keys to the right of the screen will show what is available at different points.
You will be prompted to enter a product code. You can key one in, scan one (if you have a scanner) or select the product via the on screen keyboard (products) button.
Function keys
You can either use the on screen function buttons as they are only displayed when they are available at a particular point of a transaction. Alternatively you can also use the keyboard, the following function keys map to:
Note: The keys have different meanings depending where you are in a sale:
F1 selects a receipt
F2 Price Override
Substitute Stock
Logoff
F3 Discount
Show stock audit history
Line cancel
F4 Foreign Currency
Show Supplier Info
F5 Payment screen
F6 Void Line
Show price check history
Search for Item
F7 Repeat last line
Menu
F8 Select department code for sale
Remove a discount
F9 Next item is a return item
Select VAT receipt
Void Line
F10 Suspend a transaction
Customizing your system and setting up your PLU file:
The system is designed to be easy to configure. Basically you can either use the maintenance programs supplied for basic management or you can maintain all aspects of the system by importing changes from csv formatted files. There are some samples available for download which show you how to maintain PLU’s, set up the hardware etc. Linxpos also has a sister product which allows you to easily manage a chain of stores. This allows the centralisation of all sales data and automatic management of software and data from a central office to the store systems.
What hardware is available and how do I set it up?
Included in the system is support for EPSON compatible printers (receipt and/or audit), EPSON customer and operator displays. In addition you can use a serial bar code scanner.
The default system is not configured to use any hardware devices you must configure it to use what you have. To set it up download the hardwaresetup.csv file from www.retailxcel.com/download and change it to suit your hardware.
In addition to standard serial devices we also offer an IBM driver that uses the IBM PSOS drivers available for Linux, you will need to download this from www.retailxcel.com/download.
But I have an XYZ thingy?
No problem, depending on the effort involved we are happy to add support for it alternatively if you want to interface it we will give you the support required to get it to work.
Is the source code available?
Some source code is available; the system is designed to tackle most aspects of retailer from food, through fashion, speciality retailers and at push hospitality. Most of the system can be trimmed to fit a particular requirement by tailoring the settings and if there is a specific requirement that can’t be accommodated it is possible to dove tail custom modules, this means you can still keep 99% of the system common and just have the custom modules to make the system fit your business requirements.
In the future we hope to release most if not all of our code to open source.
For details of source code availability, SDKS and such like please mail customize@retailxcel.com
Can I use it for ASP/Thin Client ?
Yes send us an email for information.
Here it is running on Microsoft Internet Explorer connected to a Linux ASP server.
