Sorry, I hadn't read your mail carefully enough. The password asked
for when Chrome starts is to log you into your Gmail/Google account.
This may seem like an annoyance but if and when you have a Google
account it is a major convenience as it allows you to synchronize all
your settings on any Chrome or Chromium Browser, anywhere you go. All
your bookmarks, personal preferences etc. are automatically retrieved.
That's a great feature, as long as you are a Google user. I am, but
you may not be. It is quite possible to create a Gmail account and
never use it, if you don't like Gmail. Personally I find it very handy
and I've never lost an email in the 5 years I've been with them. Prior
to that it happened from time to time and I'll never be able to locate
a few people that I've lost touch with. Never again!

If you are still interested in automatic logins here is how to access
and enable it. Note that I didn't install anything extra to find this.

1. Click on the mouse in the upper left corner of your screen.
2. Choose System from the drop down menu.
3. Choose Users and Groups.
4. Choose your username.
5. Click on Password.
6. Click on Change.
7. Click on last Checkbox, "Don't ask for Password".
8. Click OK.
9. Reboot to test it out.

Keyring access is definite in the (hidden) menus. I managed to find it
and there is a checkbox to add it to the menu. It comes under "Other"
on my system. However, it crashed every time I tried to use it. I have
176 updates to install, so hopefully that will make it work. It
doesn't matter if you have a Google account and enter it when Gmail
starts.

As for updating your wife's Xoom to ICS, I would say it's a good idea.
The changes are mostly "under the hood" and since I've been using ADW
Launcher for a long time I'm not much aware of the differences.
Generally I alway upgrade because a lot of the benefit is increased
stability and to a lesser extent new features. I'd definitely go for
it when it comes to your part of the world. I've even ordered the new
Google Nexus 7 tablet, partly because it comes with "Jelly Bean" but
mostly because it has a quad core CPU clocked at 20% faster than my
Xoom. I like the lighter weight as the Xoom is tiring to hold and I
think the slightly smaller screen will not be a problem.

I'm sending this from my newly installed XUBUNTU, which seems to be
both speedy and useful. I hope you enjoy using it!