Bug 118746

Could you retest with latest 10.0 kernel there has been something added for PIII-M machines supporting speedstep.
Please reopen if it does not work.

I fixed it by using the userspace governor as suggestest in another bug report

Alright. The bug was opened for RC1.
Can you confirm that the ondemand governor does not work for your PIII-M with the Goldmaster kernel or are you still working on RCX?

I removed the "userspace" option for the governor and I still get the same error with 10.1 Alpha1

michilap [powersave]: ERROR (CPUFreq_Kernel:21) Can not set
ondemand governor, maybe your cpufreq driver is too slow.
michilap [powersave]: ERROR (CPUFreq_Kernel:23) Try
CPUFREQ_CONTROL=userspace in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq.

Could you attach dmesg output please (With powersave ondemand or userspace enabled).
Which cpufreq module gets loaded for your machine (I expect acpi-cpufreq, could also be speedstep-centrino, speedstep-ich or speedstep-smi - try lsmod when powersaved is running and search for one of these).

Ok, then let's go back a few steps. I expect that to be a kernel bug, but I cannot be sure currently.

Could you please:
  1) Disable the powersaved (chkconfig powersaved off)
  2) Reboot
  3) Load the cpufreq modules by hand (modprobe acpi-cpufreq or the one you 
     identified to be the right one)
  4) Load cpufreq governor (modprobe cpufreq_ondemand)
  5) cd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq
  6) echo ondemand >scaling_governor    (enable ondemand governor)
  7) Do you have a ondemand directory there?
  8) Is the cpufreq switched if you give load to the machine (e.g. by cat 
     /dev/zero >/dev/null)?
  9) Any errors appeared in /var/log/messages while doing this?

Could you please post "ls /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand"

You should also increase the powersave debug level: /etc/sysconfig/powersave/common (first or second variable). A value of 7 should be OK, maybe you could even increase to 15.

If there are obvious kernel errors in dmesg, this could be enough to get a picture about what is going on, you should attach that first.

r098089:/home/michael # dmesg
Linux version 2.6.13.2-2-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.0.2 20050901 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 Mon Sep 26 14:25:33 UTC 2005
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 00000000000e0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000000ffd0000 (usable)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000ffd0000 - 000000000fff0c00 (reserved)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000fff0c00 - 000000000fffc000 (ACPI NVS)
 BIOS-e820: 000000000fffc000 - 0000000010000000 (reserved)
0MB HIGHMEM available.
255MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 65488
  DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
  Normal zone: 61392 pages, LIFO batch:31
  HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
DMI 2.3 present.
ACPI: RSDP (v000 COMPAQ                                ) @ 0x000f9970
ACPI: RSDT (v001 COMPAQ CPQ0030  0x31120320 CPQ  0x00000001) @ 0x0fff0c84
ACPI: FADT (v002 COMPAQ CPQ0030  0x00000002 CPQ  0x00000001) @ 0x0fff0c00
ACPI: SSDT (v001 COMPAQ   CPQCPU 0x00001001 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x0fff7bcb
ACPI: SSDT (v001 COMPAQ  CPQGysr 0x00001001 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x0fff7c16
ACPI: DSDT (v001 COMPAQ EVON600C 0x00010000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x1008
ACPI: local apic disabled
Allocating PCI resources starting at 10000000 (gap: 10000000:f0000000)
Built 1 zonelists
Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x314 selinux=0    resume=/dev/hda3  splash=silent
bootsplash: silent mode.
Initializing CPU#0
PID hash table entries: 1024 (order: 10, 16384 bytes)
Detected 730.987 MHz processor.
Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Console: colour dummy device 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Memory: 253784k/261952k available (2028k kernel code, 7520k reserved, 696k data, 204k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 1463.26 BogoMIPS (lpj=2926535)
Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized
SELinux:  Disabled at boot.
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
CPU: L1 I cache: 16K, L1 D cache: 16K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: After all inits, caps: 0383f9ff 00000000 00000000 00000040 00000000 00000000 00000000
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU      1066MHz stepping 01
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
checking if image is initramfs... it is
Freeing initrd memory: 1708k freed
ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initrd... not found!
 not found!
ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 0800)
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xf04dd, last bus=4
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050408
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C13E (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C18F (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C1DC (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C13E (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C18F (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
    ACPI-0309: *** Warning: Unknown GPE method type: C1DC (name not of form _Lxx or _Exx)
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [C03E] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.C03E] segment is 0
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.C03E] bus is 0
PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1
Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.C03E._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.C03E.C03F._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.C03E.C052._PRT]
ACPI: Power Resource [C174] (on)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BA] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BB] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BC] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BD] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BE] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BF] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0C0] (IRQs 5 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0C1] (IRQs 5 10 11) *0, disabled.
ACPI: Power Resource [C1F3] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [C1F4] (off)
ACPI: Power Resource [C1F5] (off)
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI init
pnp: PnP ACPI: found 11 devices
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a report
TC classifier action (bugs to netdev@vger.kernel.org cc hadi@cyberus.ca)
pnp: 00:08: ioport range 0x140-0x14f has been reserved
pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved
pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x1000-0x1087 could not be reserved
pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x1100-0x113f has been reserved
pnp: 00:09: ioport range 0x1200-0x121f has been reserved
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:01.0
  IO window: 3000-3fff
  MEM window: 40200000-402fffff
  PREFETCH window: 48000000-4fffffff
PCI: Bus 3, cardbus bridge: 0000:02:03.0
  IO window: 00005000-00005fff
  IO window: 00006000-00006fff
  PREFETCH window: 10000000-11ffffff
  MEM window: 16000000-17ffffff
PCI: Bus 7, cardbus bridge: 0000:02:03.1
  IO window: 00007000-00007fff
  IO window: 00008000-00008fff
  PREFETCH window: 12000000-13ffffff
  MEM window: 18000000-19ffffff
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:1e.0
  IO window: 2000-2fff
  MEM window: 40000000-401fffff
  PREFETCH window: 10000000-13ffffff
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1e.0 to 64
    ACPI-0212: *** Warning: Device is not power manageable
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0C0] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> Link [C0C0] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
    ACPI-0212: *** Warning: Device is not power manageable
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.1[A] -> Link [C0C0] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
apm: overridden by ACPI.
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1129657267.656:1): initialized
Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0
VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
Initializing Cryptographic API
vesafb: framebuffer at 0x48000000, mapped to 0xd0880000, using 3750k, total 16384k
vesafb: mode is 800x600x16, linelength=1600, pages=16
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:5341
vesafb: scrolling: redraw
vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0
bootsplash 3.1.6-2004/03/31: looking for picture...<6> silentjpeg size 51518 bytes,<6>...found (800x600, 8809 bytes, v3).
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 99x34
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Real Time Clock Driver v1.12
PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:C171,PNP0f0e:C172] at 0x60,0x64 irq 1,12
i8042.c: Detected active multiplexing controller, rev 1.1.
serio: i8042 AUX0 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 AUX1 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 AUX2 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 AUX3 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 64000K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
input: PC Speaker
md: md driver 0.90.2 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: bitmap version 3.38
NET: Registered protocol family 2
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
IP route cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 16384 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 16384 (order: 4, 65536 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 16384 bind 16384)
TCP reno registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
Using IPI Shortcut mode
ACPI wakeup devices:
C052 C17E C185 C0A4 C0AA C19F C1A0 C1A3 C1A4
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S4bios S5)
Freeing unused kernel memory: 204k freed
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
ICH3M: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BC] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> Link [C0BC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ICH3M: chipset revision 1
ICH3M: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0x4060-0x4067, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0x4068-0x406f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: IC25N020ATMR04-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hda: max request size: 1024KiB
hda: 39070080 sectors (20003 MB) w/1740KiB Cache, CHS=16383/255/63, UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes supported
 hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4
Probing IDE interface ide1...
Synaptics Touchpad, model: 1, fw: 5.8, id: 0x9b48b1, caps: 0x884793/0x0
serio: Synaptics pass-through port at isa0060/serio4/input0
input: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad on isa0060/serio4
hdc: Compaq DVD-ROM DRN-8080B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1] C2[C2] C3[C3])
ACPI: Thermal Zone [TZ1] (35 C)
hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM drive, 512kB Cache, DMA
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
ACPI: Fan [C1F6] (off)
ACPI: Fan [C1F7] (off)
ACPI: Fan [C1F8] (off)
Attempting manual resume
swsusp: Suspend partition has wrong signature?
ReiserFS: hda2: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
ReiserFS: hda2: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: hda2: journal params: device hda2, size 8192, journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: hda2: checking transaction log (hda2)
ReiserFS: hda2: Using r5 hash to sort names
input: PS/2 Generic Mouse on synaptics-pt/serio0
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
device-mapper: 4.4.0-ioctl (2005-01-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
NTFS driver 2.1.23 [Flags: R/W MODULE].
NTFS volume version 3.1.
lp: driver loaded but no devices found
Adding 529192k swap on /dev/hda3.  Priority:-1 extents:1
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
shpchp: acpi_shpchprm:\_SB_.C03E evaluate _BBN fail=0x5
shpchp: acpi_shpchprm:get_device PCI ROOT HID fail=0x5
Linux agpgart interface v0.101 (c) Dave Jones
agpgart: Detected an Intel 830M Chipset.
agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0x60000000
USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BA] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> Link [C0BA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 11, io base 0x00004000
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BD] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> Link [C0BD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 11, io base 0x00004020
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> Link [C0BC] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: UHCI Host Controller
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 11, io base 0x00004040
hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
hw_random hardware driver 1.0.0 loaded
shpchp: acpi_shpchprm:\_SB_.C03E evaluate _BBN fail=0x5
shpchp: acpi_shpchprm:get_device PCI ROOT HID fail=0x5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.0[A] -> Link [C0C0] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:03.0 [0e11:004e]
Yenta: Enabling burst memory read transactions
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:02:03.0, mfunc 0x01001002, devctl 0x64
e100: Intel(R) PRO/100 Network Driver, 3.4.8-k2-NAPI
e100: Copyright(c) 1999-2005 Intel Corporation
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x04f8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000006
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge I/O window: 0x2000 - 0x2fff
cs: IO port probe 0x2000-0x2fff: clean.
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x40000000 - 0x401fffff
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x10000000 - 0x13ffffff
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:03.1[A] -> Link [C0C0] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:03.1 [0e11:004e]
Yenta: Using CSCINT to route CSC interrupts to PCI
Yenta: Routing CardBus interrupts to PCI
Yenta TI: socket 0000:02:03.1, mfunc 0x01001002, devctl 0x64
snd: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_page_alloc: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_timer: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_pcm: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_ac97_bus: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x04f8, PCI irq 11
Socket status: 30000006
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge I/O window: 0x2000 - 0x2fff
cs: IO port probe 0x2000-0x2fff: clean.
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x40000000 - 0x401fffff
pcmcia: parent PCI bridge Memory window: 0x10000000 - 0x13ffffff
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BE] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:08.0[A] -> Link [C0BE] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
e100: eth0: e100_probe: addr 0x40100000, irq 11, MAC addr 00:02:A5:B8:1B:0F
snd_ac97_codec: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_maestro3: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
    ACPI-0212: *** Warning: Device is not power manageable
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:09.0[A] -> Link [C0BA] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x200-0x207
cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x3e0-0x4ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x100-0x3af: excluding 0x200-0x207
cs: IO port probe 0xc00-0xcff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0x820-0x8ff: clean.
cs: IO port probe 0xa00-0xaff: clean.
BIOS EDD facility v0.16 2004-Jun-25, 1 devices found
e100: eth0: e100_watchdog: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex
ACPI: AC Adapter [C1A2] (off-line)
ACPI: Battery Slot [C19F] (battery present)
ACPI: Battery Slot [C1A0] (battery absent)
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
ACPI: Sleep Button (CM) [C1A3]
ACPI: Lid Switch [C1A4]
snd_seq_device: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_seq: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_mixer_oss: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
snd_pcm_oss: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver: v1.14 <tigran@veritas.com>
microcode: CPU0 already at revision 0x1d (current=0x1d)
microcode: No new microcode data for CPU0
IA-32 Microcode Update Driver v1.14 unregistered
NET: Registered protocol family 10
Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c036b920(lo)
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
cisco_ipsec: module not supported by Novell, setting U taint flag.
cisco_ipsec: module license 'Proprietary' taints kernel.
Cisco Systems VPN Client Version 4.6.02 (0030) kernel module loaded
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
bootsplash: status on console 0 changed to on
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[drm] Initialized drm 1.0.0 20040925
    ACPI-0212: *** Warning: Device is not power manageable
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [C0BB] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> Link [C0BB] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
[drm] Initialized radeon 1.16.0 20050311 on minor 0:
agpgart: Found an AGP 2.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 1x mode
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 1x mode
agpgart: Found an AGP 2.0 compliant device at 0000:00:00.0.
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:00:00.0 into 1x mode
agpgart: Putting AGP V2 device at 0000:01:00.0 into 1x mode


r098089:/home/michael # lsmod |grep speedstep
speedstep_ich           5004  0
speedstep_lib           4228  1 speedstep_ich
freq_table              4612  1 speedstep_ich

Any obvious errors in there or should I continue with what you suggested?

I think Klaas has the same problem with a P4-M?
Klass it also was the speedstep-ich module loaded on your machine?

Venkatesh: Do you know about that? Both seem to use the speedstep-ich module and both do not work with the ondemand governor, but just fine with the userspace.
IIRC there are not any related messages in dmesg.
There was some discussion about transition timing for P-III some time ago, is this related? Any patch we could give Klaas or Michael that is worth a test?

Actually, this issue is by the design of ondemand governor. The idea at that time was to use kernel governor only when there is a low latency frequency changing governor at work. Also, ondemand governor's polling freq depends on what is the frequency transition latency. 

Unfortunately there is no documented latency number available for speedstep-ich. In such case the driver sets the transitiona latency as -1 and ondemand governor says I can't handle it. That is the right thing to do if we don't know anything about the latency as it is easier to kill a userspace governor if it misbehaves (polls too frequently).

One thing that Eric Piel and I were trying to do (look for Eric's recent postings on cpufreq mailing list), was to measure this latency of speedstep-ich on PIII-M and P4-M and use that instead of -1 in the driver. But, we din't have a handy P4-M processor to measure this latency with. 

Thanks.
I just see Stefan Seyfried offered to measure on a P4-M.
If there is any outcome we could add a latency value for the ich driver later?

Will reassign to Seife...

i will do the measurements, but it will take some time due to other high priority tasks, sorry.

i still need to do the latency measurement, but in the meantime holger has implemented automatic fallback to userspace in case ondemand does not work.

fixed in 10.1