I use currently the latest official Linux Kernel - 2.6.18.1, but I guess that, the problem also occurs with older versions. I noted first lately, that my CPU works all the time with `cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq` KHz. I looked in my kernel-log and found following: Couldn't set profile "Performance High" set for cpu0 But the I was able to switch to the corresponding cpufreq-governer and change the scaling-min- and -max value by echo'ing around in the directory /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq. So i thought that it is a bug in cpufreqd and I updated to sys-power/cpufreqd-2.2.0-r2. And now it works fine.
It worked for me, so I doubt it's a gentoo-bug... Anyway I will open a little premature stabilization bug for 2.1.1 - could you also try this version plz? Reopen if you have any suspicion what could be wrong from gentoo-side.
I went back to version 2.0.0 and it works now. I guessed it was just a configuration issue. But I recommend to change the defaul cpufreqd.conf. The "CPU Too Hot" rule switchs to the "Performance Low" profile if processor temperatur reaches 60 degrees or so. But temperaturs around 70 and 80 degrees are totally common for x86-notebooks. I guess that was the reason, why my cpu runs all the time with least frequency.
Changing the default config is not up to us. Although I do think it's not the best I can only give you a link to gentoo-power-management(there is a better(imho) config file there): http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/power-management-guide.xml#doc_chap3
