Why does intel_pstate loads on RHEL8 vmware guest and causes panic while booting?

Issue

• RHEL8 vmware guest panics while booting and after initializing intel_pstate.

[    1.351875] intel_pstate: Intel P-state driver initializing
[    1.352656] input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard as /devices/platform/i8042/serio0/input/input1
[    1.354015] cpufreq: cpufreq_online: Failed to initialize policy for cpu: 0 (-19) 
[    1.355112] cpufreq: cpufreq_online: Failed to initialize policy for cpu: 1 (-19)
[    1.356194] input: VirtualPS/2 VMware VMMouse as /devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input4
[    1.357379] BUG: unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at 0000000000000000
[    1.358016] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[    1.358314] PGD 0 P4D 0 
[    1.359202] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    1.358314] Oops: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI
[    1.360271] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    1.358314] CPU: 1 PID: 189 Comm: kworker/1:2 Not tainted 4.18.0-193.1.2.el8_2.x86_64 #1
[    1.361355] drop_monitor: Initializing network drop monitor service
[    1.361346] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/05/2016
[    1.361346] Workqueue: events handle_update
[    1.361346] RIP: 0010:find_first_bit/+0x8/0x50
[    1.363229] Initializing XFRM netlink socket
[    1.361346] Code: 48 85 f6 74 04 4c 23 04 d6 4d 85 c0 74 de f3 4d 0f bc c0 4c 01 c1 48 39 c8 48 0f 47 c1 c3 c3 0f 1f 00 48 89 f0 48 85 f6 74 2b <48> 8b 0f ba 40 00 00 00 48 83 c7 08 48 85 c9 74 15 eb 19 48 8b 0f
[    1.361346] RSP: 0018:ffffb925c17dfe68 EFLAGS: 00010202
[    1.361346] RAX: 0000000000000002 RBX: 0000000000000002 RCX: 0000000000000000
[    1.361346] RDX: ffff9b23b2bd8968 RSI: 0000000000000002 RDI: 0000000000000000
[    1.365259] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    1.361346] RBP: ffff9b23b2bd8800 R08: ffff9b23b7b2a678 R09: ffffb925c17dfe10
[    1.361346] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffff9b23b72571a4 R12: ffff9b23b7b2e700
[    1.366486] Segment Routing with IPv6
[    1.366439] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff9b23b2bec600 R15: ffff9b23b2bd8878
[    1.366439] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff9b23b7b00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[    1.366439] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[    1.366439] CR2: 0000000000000000 CR3: 000000016300a004 CR4: 00000000007606e0
[    1.366439] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[    1.369486] NET: Registered protocol family 17
[    1.366439] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[    1.366439] PKRU: 55555554
[    1.366439] Call Trace: 
[    1.366439]  refresh_frequency_limits+0x1b/0x30
[    1.371395] mpls_gso: MPLS GSO support
[    1.371392]  handle_update+0x2a/0x50
[    1.372957]  process_one_work+0x1a7/0x3b0
[    1.372957]  worker_thread+0x30/0x390
[    1.372957]  ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0
[    1.372957]  kthread+0x112/0x130
[    1.372957]  ? kthread_flush_work_fn+0x10/0x10
[    1.372957]  ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40
[    1.372957] Modules linked in:
[    1.372957] CR2: 0000000000000000
[    1.372957] ---[ end trace bffc7e20c5a512d0 ]---

• A kernel panic occurs while booting at insert_work after intel_pstate loads.

[    0.717013] intel_pstate: Intel P-state driver initializing
[    0.717059] cpufreq: cpufreq_online: Failed to initialize policy for cpu: 0 (-19)
[    0.718095] hidraw: raw HID events driver (C) Jiri Kosina
[    0.718132] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[    0.718132] usbhid: USB HID core driver
[    0.718180] drop_monitor: Initializing network drop monitor service
[    0.718243] Initializing XFRM netlink socket
[    0.718354] NET: Registered protocol family 10
[    0.718512] list_add corruption. prev->next should be next (ffff909cbfc29560), but was 0000000000000000. (prev=ffff909c762f3078).
[    0.718664] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[    0.718665] kernel BUG at lib/list_debug.c:28!
[    0.718713] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP PTI
[    0.718757] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 4.18.0-193.el8.x86_64 #1
[    0.718822] Hardware name: VMware, Inc. VMware Virtual Platform/440BX Desktop Reference Platform, BIOS 6.00 04/05/2016
[    0.718918] RIP: 0010:__list_add_valid.cold.0+0x26/0x28
[    0.718979] Code: 00 00 00 c3 48 89 d1 48 c7 c7 b0 82 2d a8 48 89 c2 e8 e0 bc ce ff 0f 0b 48 89 c1 4c 89 c6 48 c7 c7 08 83 2d a8 e8 cc bc ce ff <0f> 0b 48 89 fe 48 89 c2 48 c7 c7 98 83 2d a8 e8 b8 bc ce ff 0f 0b
[    0.719003] RSP: 0018:ffffaa0680333d48 EFLAGS: 00010046
[    0.719003] RAX: 0000000000000075 RBX: ffff909cbfc33f00 RCX: ffffffffa845b188
[    0.719003] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000096 RDI: 0000000000000046
[    0.719003] RBP: ffff909cbfc29540 R08: 00000000000003e2 R09: ffff909c400b8280
[    0.719003] R10: ffffffffa768be90 R11: 2e29383730336632 R12: ffffffffa85b5900
[    0.719003] R13: ffff909cbfc29560 R14: ffff909c762f3078 R15: ffffffffa85b5908
[    0.719003] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff909cbfc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[    0.719003] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[    0.719003] CR2: 00007fe49ae5e000 CR3: 000000003b80a004 CR4: 00000000007606f0
[    0.719003] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[    0.719003] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[    0.719003] PKRU: 55555554
[    0.719003] Call Trace:
[    0.719003]  insert_work+0x47/0xb0
[    0.719003]  __queue_work+0x103/0x3f0
[    0.719003]  mod_delayed_work_on+0x59/0x90
[    0.719003]  ? af_unix_init+0x4e/0x4e
[    0.719003]  ? do_early_param+0x91/0x91
[    0.719003]  addrconf_init+0xd8/0x250
[    0.719003]  inet6_init+0x1b4/0x35f
[    0.719003]  do_one_initcall+0x46/0x1c3
[    0.719003]  ? do_early_param+0x91/0x91
[    0.719003]  kernel_init_freeable+0x1af/0x258
[    0.719003]  ? rest_init+0xaa/0xaa
[    0.719003]  kernel_init+0xa/0xff
[    0.719003]  ret_from_fork+0x35/0x40
[    0.719003] Modules linked in:
[    0.719003] ---[ end trace ce9ba1280a4dff3f ]---
[    0.719003] RIP: 0010:__list_add_valid.cold.0+0x26/0x28
[    0.719003] Code: 00 00 00 c3 48 89 d1 48 c7 c7 b0 82 2d a8 48 89 c2 e8 e0 bc ce ff 0f 0b 48 89 c1 4c 89 c6 48 c7 c7 08 83 2d a8 e8 cc bc ce ff <0f> 0b 48 89 fe 48 89 c2 48 c7 c7 98 83 2d a8 e8 b8 bc ce ff 0f 0b
[    0.719003] RSP: 0018:ffffaa0680333d48 EFLAGS: 00010046
[    0.719003] RAX: 0000000000000075 RBX: ffff909cbfc33f00 RCX: ffffffffa845b188
[    0.719003] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000096 RDI: 0000000000000046
[    0.719003] RBP: ffff909cbfc29540 R08: 00000000000003e2 R09: ffff909c400b8280
[    0.719003] R10: ffffffffa768be90 R11: 2e29383730336632 R12: ffffffffa85b5900
[    0.719003] R13: ffff909cbfc29560 R14: ffff909c762f3078 R15: ffffffffa85b5908
[    0.719003] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff909cbfc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[    0.719003] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[    0.719003] CR2: 00007fe49ae5e000 CR3: 000000003b80a004 CR4: 00000000007606f0
[    0.719003] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[    0.719003] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[    0.719003] PKRU: 55555554
[    0.719003] Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception
[    0.719003] Kernel Offset: 0x26200000 from 0xffffffff81000000 (relocation range: 0xffffffff80000000-0xffffffffbfffffff)
[    0.719003] ---[ end Kernel panic - not syncing: Fatal exception ]---