diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/R/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/R/package.py
index 000e337ce002eff4a052c1e5602810a389c98e1b..fa8adb69eaa39de7b4b691e66f4b31c1272a8bdf 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/R/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/R/package.py
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ class R(Package):
variant('external-lapack', default=False,
description='Links to externally installed BLAS/LAPACK')
- variant('X', default=True,
+ variant('X', default=False,
description='Enable X11 support (call configure --with-x)')
# Virtual dependencies
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
index 87ab2bbaaca5be6ba7de2c728cce7086d45a3860..a1c18d80866f6b657fd485d959b66a9f895283b0 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/arpack-ng/package.py
@@ -61,7 +61,7 @@ class ArpackNg(Package):
variant('shared', default=True,
description='Enables the build of shared libraries')
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Activates MPI support')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Activates MPI support')
# The function pdlamch10 does not set the return variable.
# This is fixed upstream
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cairo/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cairo/package.py
index fce7da3f17b7d0c1a7d5af19f40fa36b9274a4b2..8bf1cc4ef81beb5b70bd0b7f0adfa0c925fd67c5 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cairo/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cairo/package.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ class Cairo(AutotoolsPackage):
version('1.14.0', 'fc3a5edeba703f906f2241b394f0cced')
- variant('X', default=True, description="Build with X11 support")
+ variant('X', default=False, description="Build with X11 support")
depends_on('libx11', when='+X')
depends_on('libxext', when='+X')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/caliper/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/caliper/package.py
index 113bef61b8da1231346ffa975013beb6aefac29f..c9d4a41bc2dc08ccf02d1825a3180d08ce809e61 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/caliper/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/caliper/package.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class Caliper(Package):
version('master', git='https://github.com/LLNL/Caliper.git')
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Enable MPI function wrappers.')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Enable MPI function wrappers.')
depends_on('libunwind')
depends_on('papi')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/charm/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/charm/package.py
index 1ec53c21389ea4d19091d123919670e3f2123eb7..7072e37cd3c969c1c1385163b94d6c8161600afb 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/charm/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/charm/package.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class Charm(Package):
# Communication mechanisms (choose exactly one)
# TODO: Support Blue Gene/Q PAMI, Cray GNI, Cray shmem, CUDA
- variant("mpi", default=False,
+ variant("mpi", default=True,
description="Use MPI as communication mechanism")
variant("multicore", default=False,
description="Disable inter-node communication")
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fftw/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fftw/package.py
index 53b635ba7c6e82a0fb4991af42274358dc475498..838f6ff74441ad3f185762effb9aa57863b2d096 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fftw/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/fftw/package.py
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ class Fftw(Package):
description='Produces a quad precision version of the library '
'(works only with GCC and libquadmath)')
variant('openmp', default=False, description="Enable OpenMP support.")
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Activate MPI support')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Activate MPI support')
variant(
'pfft_patches', default=False,
description='Add extra transpose functions for PFFT compatibility')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gmsh/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gmsh/package.py
index dd142866e54338023aad0275d22f78b828570373..afed1097f1725682a99da9030d77c1e1c723b9a7 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gmsh/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gmsh/package.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class Gmsh(Package):
description='Enables the build of shared libraries')
variant('debug', default=False,
description='Builds the library in debug mode')
- variant('mpi', default=False,
+ variant('mpi', default=True,
description='Builds MPI support for parser and solver')
variant('fltk', default=False,
description='Enables the build of the FLTK GUI')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gtkplus/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gtkplus/package.py
index b0b11db64f3d7a051167e2eda6e75c09c1e14a32..9005d4f5163dc783afc3562ad290a3fa96f93e41 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gtkplus/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gtkplus/package.py
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ class Gtkplus(Package):
'2.24.25', '612350704dd3aacb95355a4981930c6f',
url="http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/gtk+/2.24/gtk+-2.24.25.tar.xz")
- variant('X', default=True, description="Enable an X toolkit")
+ variant('X', default=False, description="Enable an X toolkit")
depends_on("atk")
depends_on("gdk-pixbuf")
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/h5hut/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/h5hut/package.py
index 1501384493b1289504dc186019d6603015307139..a80a9e1082c632991618c34218cd13d4bfeb8af8 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/h5hut/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/h5hut/package.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class H5hut(Package):
version("1.99.13", "2a07a449afe50534de006ac6954a421a")
variant("fortran", default=True, description="Enable Fortran support")
- variant("mpi", default=False, description="Enable MPI support")
+ variant("mpi", default=True, description="Enable MPI support")
depends_on("autoconf @2.60:", type="build")
depends_on("automake", type="build")
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/julia/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/julia/package.py
index 033e27fb645ae9018f197f4d341ac4e289362b9f..3725724ee34e00c4b4cf0c132d16ecd938d1c700 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/julia/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/julia/package.py
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ class Julia(Package):
# TODO: Split these out into jl-hdf5, jl-mpi packages etc.
variant("cxx", default=False, description="Prepare for Julia Cxx package")
variant("hdf5", default=False, description="Install Julia HDF5 package")
- variant("mpi", default=False, description="Install Julia MPI package")
+ variant("mpi", default=True, description="Install Julia MPI package")
variant("plot", default=False,
description="Install Julia plotting packages")
variant("python", default=False,
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mfem/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mfem/package.py
index 9aa4ab8cf03914e4c1f60b50350590e075a07420..45f64cef6561fc97386d1a311f778ac0dc4de5b7 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mfem/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mfem/package.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ class Mfem(Package):
variant('hypre', default=False, description='Activate support for hypre')
variant('suite-sparse', default=False,
description='Activate support for SuiteSparse')
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Activate support for MPI')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Activate support for MPI')
variant('superlu-dist', default=False,
description='Activate support for SuperLU_Dist')
variant('lapack', default=False, description='Activate support for LAPACK')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/paraview/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/paraview/package.py
index 68c781734ef0a96210304083313ed168d15ef6f7..252f58247f10a88ce4925fb27e0904d139ebf3c3 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/paraview/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/paraview/package.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class Paraview(Package):
variant('tcl', default=False, description='Enable TCL support')
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Enable MPI support')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Enable MPI support')
variant('osmesa', default=False, description='Enable OSMesa support')
variant('qt', default=False, description='Enable Qt support')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-h5py/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-h5py/package.py
index 0579787ba2ec44146a59040096849b1938139984..85c3996051007ad0031efd15df33e845cc879389 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-h5py/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/py-h5py/package.py
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class PyH5py(Package):
version('2.5.0', '6e4301b5ad5da0d51b0a1e5ac19e3b74')
version('2.4.0', '80c9a94ae31f84885cc2ebe1323d6758')
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Build with MPI support')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Build with MPI support')
extends('python')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/scotch/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/scotch/package.py
index add2154f43b436588c8d04c44b321b9f891dd72f..ca8e3e3fa0d6586af500ce35d984184fbfe952dc 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/scotch/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/scotch/package.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ class Scotch(Package):
version('6.0.0', 'c50d6187462ba801f9a82133ee666e8e')
version('5.1.10b', 'f587201d6cf5cf63527182fbfba70753')
- variant('mpi', default=False,
+ variant('mpi', default=True,
description='Activate the compilation of parallel libraries')
variant('compression', default=True,
description='Activate the posibility to use compressed files')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/tk/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/tk/package.py
index 12a7049e72e4e11c75abf8bef5f3253d33321223..1abcd26a2407541217349bb7740432d4b37fea67 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/tk/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/tk/package.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ class Tk(Package):
version('8.6.5', '11dbbd425c3e0201f20d6a51482ce6c4')
version('8.6.3', '85ca4dbf4dcc19777fd456f6ee5d0221')
- variant('X', default=True, description='Enable X11 support')
+ variant('X', default=False, description='Enable X11 support')
depends_on("tcl")
depends_on("libx11", when='+X')
diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/turbomole/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/turbomole/package.py
index b2d7e90057d3e891a4c8747b5f01aa53af3f094a..cf14259da4f0556f5fd81e9ad2ce4639eff06447 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/turbomole/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/turbomole/package.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class Turbomole(Package):
version('7.0.2', '92b97e1e52e8dcf02a4d9ac0147c09d6',
url="file://%s/turbolinux702.tar.gz" % os.getcwd())
- variant('mpi', default=False, description='Set up MPI environment')
+ variant('mpi', default=True, description='Set up MPI environment')
variant('smp', default=False, description='Set up SMP environment')
# Turbomole's install is odd. There are three variants