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If you were like me and installed the original release of OpenSolaris, it might be time to upgrade. The original release (2008.05) was based on the Solaris Nevada code version 86. The current version of Nevada is 93. The great thing about OpenSolaris is that the changes in Nevada get ported over to the OpenSolaris package server. This means you can easily upgrade to the latest package set with one command: pkg image-update

It gets better! OpenSolaris will even help protect your system by creating an entirely new boot environment and upgrading that. So if something were to not go as expected you could always boot back into your original environment.

The following instructions were not written by me, I got them from the indiana-discuss mailing list in the build 93 announcement by David Comay. I have copied it here for reference.

General instructions on updating to the latest OpenSolaris development build
=======================================================================
1) Before using the "image-update" subcommand, it is recommended that
the latest available version of the IPS software be installed for your
current boot environment

       $ BUILD=`uname -v | sed s/snv_//`
       $ pfexec pkg refresh
       $ pfexec pkg install SUNWipkg@0.5.11-0.$BUILD
       $ pfexec pkg install entire@0.5.11-0.$BUILD

2) Before proceeding to the next step, verify your OpenSolaris build
number

       $ echo $BUILD

3) If you are running build 93 or greater, you can use "image-update"
directly as follows

       $ pfexec pkg image-update

4) If you are using a build prior to 93, it is recommended one apply
the update directly to an alternate boot environment.  First, display
the list of the existing BEs on the system

       $ beadm list
       BE            Active Active on Mountpoint     Space
       Name                 reboot                   Used
       ----          ------ --------- ----------     -----
       opensolaris   no     no        -              33.92M
       opensolaris-1 yes    yes       -              17.06M

Next, choose the name of a new BE - if the most recent created BE is of
the form "opensolaris-" where  is an integer, then a suitable
choice for the new BE is "opensolaris-".  In the above example,
the new BE would be "opensolaris-2".

Then, execute the following sequence to create, mount, update and
activate the new BE

       $ pfexec beadm create opensolaris-
       $ pfexec beadm mount opensolaris- /mnt
       $ pfexec pkg -R /mnt image-update
       $ pfexec beadm activate opensolaris-

5) If you are running build 86, one additional work-around is
required.

               >>>>>>>>>> IMPORTANT <<<<<<<<<<

Due to changes in the GRUB boot system, one must manually update the
Master Boot Record (MBR) to include these latest changes.  Failure to
follow these instructions when updating from 2008.05 (build 86) to a
later build will result in a system that does not boot by default and
instead the original boot environment must be manually selected.

Update the GRUB configuration on your ZFS boot device(s) using

       $ pfexec /mnt/boot/solaris/bin/update_grub -R /mnt

When you're ready to boot into the updated boot environment, you can
reboot(1M) or init(1M) as usual.