Comment # 16 on bug 1220290 from Rory A

As a side note I am able to make the system 'more usable' by booting into the
working powersave move then adjusting the min CPU MHz values thus speeding up
the CPU.  

echo 1200000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq

Then when I'm done with whatever CPU intensive task I slow it back down.

echo 800000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq

Or I can change to the performance scaling_governor for a minute or two while I
open firefox, or do an update, then change back to powersave.

For other users here is a bash script that makes 'manually governing' the CPU a
bit easier.  But you'll want to adjust the min/max based on your CPU.  And
presently 'E' for edit runs leafpad.  Replace that with whatever your editor
is.

I hope posting this script here is not outside the rules!  Apologies if so.

This script refreshes every 2 seconds.

while :
do
clear
sgov=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor)
echo "scaling_governor : " $sgov
echo -e ""
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "MHz"
echo -e ""
sdriver=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver)
echo "scaling_driver : " $sdriver
echo -e ""
echo -e "1) Powersave \n2) Conservative \n3) Schedutil \n4) Performance \n5)
Ondemand \n\n6) Max 1.4 GHz \n7) Max 2.5 GHz \n\n9) Min 900 MHz \n0) Min 1.2
GHz \n\nD) Defaults \nE) Edit \nQ) Quit"
echo ""
sminf=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq)
smaxf=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq)
echo "scaling_min_freq : " $sminf 
echo "scaling_max_freq : " $smaxf
read -rsn1 -t 1 input
if [ "$input" = "1" ]; then
    echo powersave | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ "$input" = "2" ]; then
    echo conservative | tee
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ "$input" = "3" ]; then
    echo schedutil | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ "$input" = "4" ]; then
    echo performance | tee
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ "$input" = "5" ]; then
    echo ondemand | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
fi
if [ "$input" = "6" ]; then
    echo 1400000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
fi
if [ "$input" = "7" ]; then
    echo 2500000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
fi
if [ "$input" = "9" ]; then
    echo 900000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
fi
if [ "$input" = "0" ]; then
    echo 1200000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
fi

if [ "$input" = "d" ]; then
    echo 800000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
    echo 2700000 | tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
fi
if [ "$input" = "q" ]; then
    exit
fi
if [ "$input" = "e" ]; then
        leafpad mon.sh
        exit
fi
sleep 2
done