Success - The compute module is working from my own simple homemade breakout board.
I used the basic breakout board to connect via 'screen ttyUSB0 -l root', and setup wifi with WPA. Then moved the compute module back to my simple board powered from a lipo. It works great. Only needs two connections: battery + and -. It boots. A few seconds later, connects and gets an ip addr. Then I can ssh in, no problems. Nice boot time, btw. This is truly the little mobile miracle platform I've been waiting for =)
Fantastic!
-Greg