OpenMPI-bin error after update (K)Ubuntu 18.04 to 20.04

Question

I have just upgraded my Kubuntu from 18.04 to 20.04. Unfortunately there is an error that keeps showing up everytime I use apt upgrade or installing something with apt. The error is:

update-alternatives: error: /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/mpi corrupt: slave link same as main link /usr/bin/mpicc

It has been reported and yet has not been patched until the time I write this question.

After more than a month trying various ways to deal with this problem I finally found the solution as you can see below. I hope it is useful for you who met with the same problem.

Tortoiseshell

Had this error also. Other errors that popped up with this one (for google as you have the perfect answer) were "E: Internal Error, No file name for openmpi-bin:amd64" and "/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: openmpi-bin is broken or not fully installed" and "dpkg: error processing package openmpi-bin" – Dwarfism

Answer 1

First remove the update-alternatives for openmpi:

sudo rm -f /etc/alternatives/mpi* /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/mpi*

Then install openmpi-bin again:

sudo apt install open-mpi

answer Y when asked for confirmation.

In Ubuntu 22.04 (or if the above line doesn't work) - try this instead:

sudo apt install openmpi-bin

Tortoiseshell

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives/mpi; sudo apt install openmpi-bin – Nevadanevai

Resolved a similar issue for me upgrading from 20.04 to 22.04 – Bucolic

Thank you for this - and ditto what @Bucolic said above, removing the alternatives links resolved an error I was encountering going from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04 as well. – Ethbin