The file "/etc/conf.d/cpufrequtils" provides GOVERNOR, but not RESTORED_GOVERNOR. In "/etc/init.d/cpufrequtils", RESTORED_GOVERNOR is set to "performance" per default: if [ -z "${RESTORED_GOVERNOR}" ]; then RESTORED_GOVERNOR=performance fi If GOVERNOR != RESTORED_GOVERNOR, stopping cpufrequtils then always fails since stop() { checkconfig || return 1 affect_change "Disabling" "${RESTORED_GOVERNOR}" } I don't know what RESTORED_GOVERNOR is supposed to do, but changing the above to "Disabling" "${GOVERNOR}" instead, lets me stop that service again.
Thanks Daniel, I just commited a fixed init-script.