petsc-dev users, I have finally completed my changes to PETSc for a new approach to accessing external direct solvers in PETSc like Spooles, MUMPS etc. I will be pushing it to petsc-dev sometime the middle of next week. If you are using the direct solvers you might consider cloning from http://petsc.cs.iit.edu/hg/petsc/petsc-dev-new-solvers or ssh://[email protected]//hg/petsc/petsc-dev-new-solvers and trying it out before then. Please report problem to [email protected] as you hit them. Barry From the changes file The "parallel direct solver" matrix types like MATAIJSPOOLES are ALL gone. Now you use -pc_factor_mat_solver_package spooles etc or PCFactorSetMatSolverPackage() or if working directly with matrices, MatGetFactor(A,MATSPOOLES,...)