need help Configuring new Ubuntu 14.04 +Cloudmin server properly

Hi, this is my first serious attempt at this kind of set-up so please stay with me here. I post this directly in CloudMin forum but got no response but maybe it should be going here instead. if this post is too big I can split it up, how ever at the moment I am not sure what my real issue is or what it is with (except for being a noob to the nth degree <>)

What I am trying to do:

I am trying to set-up a home lab File server and VM server. as a side note, this is a rebuild, I have run this hardware as a reasonably good File Server for the last 2 years, all data is nice safe on original BTRFS based HDD pools that are clearly identified and preserved. when all is done and configured I will move the data onto the new pool area and add the drives to the new set-up.

My hardware is: AMD FX8320 CPU with 16GB RAM UEFI BIOS 1 - 400GB SATA HDD (System drive) all system is installed here 1 - 1TB SATA HDD (Plan to create a BTRFS pool in RAID-0 on that drive to be expanded later as/if needed) 3-2TB SATA HDD (single BTRFS pool in RAID-1) for all data storage. as I said before, I also have a 2TB drive and 2x3TB drives from my initial use of the server that when I have everything running, I will move the data from and a add those to the main DATASTORE

1- RealTeck GigaBit NIC on MB this is eth0 1 - Intel pro dual port GigaBit NIC in PCI slot this is shown as p4p1 and p4p2

I have already installed Ubuntu 14.04 server with SSH and Virtual Server Manager. run apt-get update / apt-get upgrade right after install. reboot and configure the network in /etc/network/interfaces to my liking reboot. //****************************************************************************//

cat /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo br0 eth0 p4p1 p4p2 iface lo inet loopback

iface eth0 inet manual

iface br0 inet static address 192.168.5.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 broadcast 192.168.5.255 network 192.168.5.0 bridge_ports eth0 gateway 192.168.5.1 dns-nameservers 192.168.5.1 dns-domain home.lan home

iface p4p1 inet static address 192.168.5.2 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 192.168.5.0 dns-nameservers 192.168.5.1 dns-domain home.lan home

iface p4p2 inet static address 192.168.5.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 network 192.168.5.0 dns-nameservers 192.168.5.1 dns-domain home.lan home

!!! this lines where added by my manipulations of network interface in WebMin !!! I think it was in response to me turning on the IPv6 support iface br0 inet6 manual pre-up /sbin/modprobe -q ipv6 ; /bin/true

iface p4p1 inet6 manual pre-up /sbin/modprobe -q ipv6 ; /bin/true

iface p4p2 inet6 manual pre-up /sbin/modprobe -q ipv6 ; /bin/true

//****************************************************************************//

run the cloudmin GPL KVM script and can login onto the CloudMin UI but here I get confused.

Main Question is what do I need/MUST do after initial install? the OS install goes on ok with exception described in Q(0) below. the CloudMin script runs ok as well

Question/Problem #0: the Ubuntu Set-up does not recognise my MB NIC. it seeing it, as it comes up in the list of available interfaces during set-up, but it can not connect via that NIC to the network. so during initial install I point the primary interface to the p4p1 nic as that one works just fine. However I want to use my MB NIC as primary interface, but after install even if I redo my etc/network/interfaces file to define eth0 as primary (actually I create a br0 on eth0 port) the nic that was used on install acts as primary everywhere. my CableVision router recognise it as primary, as in tight to the hostname (MasterServer) and all modules also recognise it as primary. not good for me as my plan is to set-up a pfSence or Sophos UTM VM and sue that as a router later, passing the Intel nick into VM to use just for that. p4p1 as WAN(RED) interface and p4p2 as LAN(GREEN) interface.

SO is there a good step-by-step how-to on what is absolute MUST in configuration for a standalone host server for me to be able to start creating and running VMs? as it is now I get error "missing hostname" etc. I looked in all documentation I could find and can not resolve the situations. I have no domain (it's a home server), like to use something like 'Server1.home.lan' how do I set this up properly.