It appears there are problems with mpich2 packages provided by ubuntu 12.04/12.10 etc. I think the problem is the compile time arguments they use when building them. I made a bug report to ubuntu launchpad but they suggested I should contact you also. Can somebody please have a look and comment on the bug report? https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mpich2/+bug/1045326 Thanks, Evren PS. I used to have an account 'yurtesen' in the bug reporting system, but it does not seem to function anymore, was it removed somehow? who can see that?