Ubuntu Laptop Install - Part 2

Continuing the Installation

I selected my time zone
I specified the user account
Ubuntu finished telling me the first stage of installation is complete
It ejected my CD and continued to reboot the computer

Booting

Watched all the messages scroll by on the boot. Everything said [ok]. Seems promising.
It then appeared to unpack a bunch of Debian packages Scrolls by too fast to read. This seems to be the slowest part of the installation by far. The hard drive is (quietly) working hard.

It appears to be done. I now have an Ubuntu logo taking up most of the screen and its prompting for my username. The screen resolution seems good. A good sign.

I logged in. Some kind of tree-hugging waterfall, birds and windchimes sound plays. At least the sound card works.

I went to System --> Preferences --> Screen resolution. Sure enough, 1920x1200. Nice.

Configuring Wireless

I pulled out my network cable.
I went to System --> Administration --> Networking
If I understand it correctly in order to configure multiple wireless networks (or perhaps multiple networks altogether), I need to assign each to a different location.
I selected the Location dropdown and choose Create New and called it "Home"
I clicked on Wireless Connection and clicked Properties
I checked on This device is configured
It detected my wireless network, so I selected its ESSID from the dropdown
I entered the wep key. I keep it on a USB stick which, when I plugged into the laptop, popped up on the desktop.
Selected DHCP and hit OK
The Wireless Connection was still selected so I clicked Activate; it popped up a dialog box telling me it's Activating interface "eth1". It took a minute or too before disappearing.
I switched the Default gateway device as eth1. I think this is what tells it which one to use in this profile.
Clicked OK to get rid of the Network settings dialog, although it doesn't seem to be going away. There is a spinning cursor when I hover the mouse over it, but the rest of the system seems fine. Hmm, still there after a few minutes.

I pulled up Firefox and went to google.com. It didn't work.
I clicked on the little network icon on the top-right of the screen and typed into the dropdown "eth1". It switched to that.
Firefox works now.


Standby?

I closed the lid. Opened it up. I was left with a console login prompt.
I pressed a few random function keys.
The computer powered off.
Powered it back on. Not sure what happened.
Its trying to boot. It came back up with a fresh login. It really did power off.

Hibernate?

I went to System --> Logout and selected hibernate.
It seemed to hibernate. Powered down.