I was bothered by my C1, because it is a brick without an internet connection.
I couldn't believe that i can't use the build in FM tuner or the internal storage to play sounds and i can't see the actual time without any interaction. If the Chumby starts up and can't get an internet connection it is annoying you to establish a connection.
The common suggested hacks wasn't smart enough for me, because i don't wanted to have an USB-Stick connected all the time and the Chumby shouldn't change his behaviour if he has a connection.

I tried to figure out what is responsible for that cumbrous behaviour.
It's not the controlpanel itself. The problem is in the start_control_panel script in /usr/chumby/scripts/
And you have to change only one byte to get the chumby working in a smart way.

The script forces the controlpanel to ask for an internet connection by parameter:

controlpanel.swf -dbuiltin=1 -Q

With it, the controlpanel asks for a connection and downloads the actual controlpanel from chumby.com and close itself so the script can start the downloaded CP.
Maybe this was a good solution for Chumby classic, because it has no offline functionality, but on C1 it su**s.

The solution is quite easy. You have to prevent the script from adding this parameter, if no network is available, by changing "BUILTIN=1" to "BUILTIN=0" in the following lines:

...
    if [ ! -z "$NETWORK_ERROR" ]; then
        # network is not functioning
        CP=$CP_PATH
        BUILTIN=0
    else
...

Please consider that you can change this script only if you have write access to "/" and you do it by your own risk.

After this patch the C1 will load the controlpanel from "/usr/widgets/" if it couldn't establish a connection. You can connect to a network manually, without restarting the Chumby, under "Settings->Network".
If you start your Chumby offline the CP may not be the actual one, but you can copy the actual CP from "/tmp/" to  "/usr/widgets/" (you need write access to "/" to do that) if you have started your Chumby with a connection to the internet.