Controlling object speed externally

Hello

I'm using ODE by completely controlling object position/speed/etc from
my code and only letting ODE control them after the first collision. I
want to use only ODE for collision detection and response, not motion.

Is this acceptable or should I try to use motors or explicit forces
instead? It seems to almost work.

I have a problem: When objects crash they start "wobbling" on the
ground. I disabled all bounciness but objects seems to oscillate a lot
on the ground. For instance a large box will first "pivot" on the edge
and then go back and pivot on the back edge and raise to almost the
same height. They take way too much time to stabilise. I saw this FAQ
entry:

http://opende.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_do_I_stop_things_from_rolling_off_into_infinity.2C_or_pendulums_from_swinging_forever.3F

I tried to implement "rolling friction" with something like
AddTorque(-0.1 * GetAngularVel()) but it didn't work. Shouldn't the
inertia tensor be involved here somehow? Or perhaps it should be
implemented for each contact point? I have no idea.

Perhaps it actually happens because I control the objects by hand
before collision?