diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
index b624bfe8665..14c496506b6 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/mpich/package.py
@@ -61,9 +61,9 @@ class Mpich(AutotoolsPackage, CudaPackage, ROCmPackage):
     variant("wrapperrpath", default=True, description="Enable wrapper rpath")
     variant(
         "pmi",
-        default="pmi",
+        default="default",
         description="""PMI interface.""",
-        values=("pmi", "pmi2", "pmix", "cray"),
+        values=("default", "pmi", "pmi2", "pmix", "cray"),
         multi=False,
     )
     variant(
@@ -388,10 +388,16 @@ def is_disabled(text):
             if re.search(r"--with-thread-package=argobots", output):
                 variants.append("+argobots")
 
-            if re.search(r"--with-pmi=simple", output):
+            if re.search(r"--with-pmi=default", output):
+                variants.append("pmi=default")
+            elif re.search(r"--with-pmi=simple", output):
                 variants.append("pmi=pmi")
             elif re.search(r"--with-pmi=pmi2/simple", output):
                 variants.append("pmi=pmi2")
+            elif re.search(r"--with-pmi=pmi", output):
+                variants.append("pmi=pmi")
+            elif re.search(r"--with-pmi=pmi2", output):
+                variants.append("pmi=pmi2")
             elif re.search(r"--with-pmix", output):
                 variants.append("pmi=pmix")
 
@@ -555,14 +561,32 @@ def configure_args(self):
         else:
             config_args.append("--with-slurm=no")
 
-        if "pmi=pmi" in spec:
-            config_args.append("--with-pmi=simple")
-        elif "pmi=pmi2" in spec:
-            config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmi2/simple")
-        elif "pmi=pmix" in spec:
-            config_args.append("--with-pmix={0}".format(spec["pmix"].prefix))
-        elif "pmi=cray" in spec:
-            config_args.append("--with-pmi=cray")
+        # PMI options changed in 4.2.0
+        if spec.satisfies("@4.2:"):
+            # default (no option) is to build both PMIv1 and PMI2 client interfaces
+            if "pmi=pmi" in spec:
+                # make PMI1 the default client interface
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmi")
+            elif "pmi=pmi2" in spec:
+                # make PMI2 the default client interface
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmi2")
+            elif "pmi=pmix" in spec:
+                # use the PMIx client interface with an external PMIx library
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmix")
+                config_args.append(f"--with-pmix={spec['pmix'].prefix}")
+            elif "pmi=cray" in spec:
+                # use PMI2 interface of the Cray PMI library
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmi2")
+                config_args.append(f"--with-pmi2={spec['cray-pmi'].prefix}")
+        else:
+            if "pmi=pmi" in spec:
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=simple")
+            elif "pmi=pmi2" in spec:
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=pmi2/simple")
+            elif "pmi=pmix" in spec:
+                config_args.append(f"--with-pmix={spec['pmix'].prefix}")
+            elif "pmi=cray" in spec:
+                config_args.append("--with-pmi=cray")
 
         if "+cuda" in spec:
             config_args.append("--with-cuda={0}".format(spec["cuda"].prefix))