diff --git a/votca.changes b/votca.changes
index ad4ffab..81b7939 100644
--- a/votca.changes
+++ b/votca.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mon Jan  2 15:23:48 UTC 2023 - Christoph Junghans <junghans@votca.org>
+
+- don't use mpi gromacs on ix86
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Wed Dec 21 22:25:15 UTC 2022 - Christoph Junghans <junghans@votca.org>
 
diff --git a/votca.spec b/votca.spec
index ceff63a..fe8b7bd 100644
--- a/votca.spec
+++ b/votca.spec
@@ -44,8 +44,12 @@ BuildRequires:  gnuplot
 # gromacs is not available on 32-bit arm
 %ifnarch %{arm}
 BuildRequires:  gromacs-devel
+# mpi gromacs is not available on 32-bit intel
+# used for testing only
+%ifnarch %ix86
 BuildRequires:  gromacs-openmpi
 %endif
+%endif
 BuildRequires:  hdf5-devel
 BuildRequires:  lammps
 BuildRequires:  libboost_filesystem-devel >= 1.71.0