power down on an embedded board

Hello, I'm using debian in an emdedded system on PC board. I'm using x-windows (with GNOME) but only as a display medium. The user has no way of acssesing it. So power down happens when someone turns the machinery off. There's no way knowing when the system will be powered down, and I can't give users access to any functions. All they have is a small touch screen.

I'm worried that not doing a correct powerdown will cause problems, can anyone advise on this and is their any solution, I would prefer not to use a UPS (and don't even know if you can use these in Linux). Thanks in advance

I suppose you could build your system so that it works along the same lines as Knoppix (ie boot from CD) and have writable storage devices mounted via NFS from an always on server.

You wouldn't have to then worry about corrupting system files on a power down.

Embedded systems are a combination of hardware and software which facilitates mass production and a host of applications.These systems meet their real-time constraints with a combination of special purpose hardware and software custom-developed to cope with the system requirements.