I was under the impression that Etch had this built in. One of the posts here suggests that if this were so I'd see the presence of:

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq

which I don't. The cpufreq file (directory?) does not exist. Further, trying to install the cpufreqd package yields nothing but:

Setting up cpufreqd (2.2.1-2) ...
No cpufreq interface found, not starting cpufreqd.

Tried to follow another HowTo-like thread here that suggested:

modprobe acpi cpufreq_userspace cpufreq_powersave

and I get:

FATAL: Error inserting acpi_cpufreq (/lib/modules/2.6.18-4-686/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/acpi-cpufreq.ko): No such device


This is extremely frustrating; it seems like with every attempt to make the slightest change or installation I'm starting a new hobby.

Anyway, where do I go from here?

What type of processor are you using?

Criminy, I forgot to mention that.

Pentium III mobile. (Compaq EVO N600c). It's worked with cpufreq before: cpufreq-info,set,etc. That was with Knoppix 5.1.

Try this:
modprobe speedstep-ich
modprobe speedstep-smi

Not sure which one it is. (it depends on what is in /proc/ioports)


That's strange, it should be autodetected.

Do you regularly update the etch?
A week ago there was a bug and the result was that all acpi modules were not loaded.

edit:
the bug is in
/etc/init.d/acpid

change this line:
MODPROBE_OPTIONS="$MODPROBE_OPTIONS -Q"

to this line:
MODPROBE_OPTIONS="$MODPROBE_OPTIONS -q"

userMe@Moe:sudo modprobe speedstep-ich
userMe@Moe:~/Desktop/java/e50b/5.3$ sudo modprobe speedstep-smi
FATAL: Error inserting speedstep_smi (/lib/modules/2.6.18-4-686/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-smi.ko): Device or resource busy

Okay, looks like you found it.

Just to be sure, can you post the result of

If you get ich then your module is speedstep-ich (depends on the exact model of the cpu)


And then you should have
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq