System crash caused by the powernow-k8 kernel module

[Teodor <mteodor@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I'm having Debian GNU/Linux installed on my workstation with AMD
Athlon(tm) 64 X2 4800+ (actually 2.5GHz). From the very beginning after
the install I was getting multiple system freezes. This happens with
both linux images from unstable (2.6.22-3-amd64) and testing
(2.6.22-2-amd64).

Recently I've found that is caused by the powernow-k8 kernel module. I
can reproduce the problem easily by activating the 'Cool n Quiet'
option in the BIOS and just reboot the system. The freeze usually
happens after I'm logged in the X session probably when the load is
growing.

As a temporary workaround I've blacklisted the powernow-k8 module and
no more system freezes.

I would like to fill a bug report but I'm afraid I don't have enough
useful information to give. Can you tell me how can I debug a kernel
panic/crash?

Thanks for your help.