SageMath login failure

[GreyGeek]

I moved the SageMath directory and hidden config file from my Neon backup @home subvolume snapshot, along with its .sage config file, to my new Kubuntu 18.04.1 installation.

I ran ./sage in a Konsole and at the
sage:
prompt I entered
notebook(reset=True)
I was asked for the new password for admin and entered it twice.
I was then taken to the FireFox browser which opened to
localhost:8080
and presented me with a login dialog.
I entered admin for the name and my new password. Nothing happened. No error msgs, Nothing. It did not open up to the existing spreadsheets I had previously made.

Mmmm... Maybe I can't just move the SageMath directory and config file out of the archive backup and run it?

I closed the FireFox browser, hit Ctrl+C in the Konsole and entered "quit" to exit SageMath.

I deleted the SageMath directory and .sage config file and downloaded the latest available Ubuntu binary, which was for 16.04. Installing it and setting the password presented the same problem.

I deleted that SageMath directory and .sage config file and opened muon. There were several sage related apps in the repository. I selected everything related to sage and installed them. I opened a Konsole and entered sage. The sage console prompt line appeared. I entered netbook(reset=True) and assigned a password to admin. After entering the confirming password FireFox was opened as before and I attempted to log in as admin using the password I just set. Same problem. I opened muon again and selected all the sage math apps that I had installed and used the purge option. There were dozens more auxillary apps that were installed but after I closed muon I entered sudo apt autoremove and was asked if I wanted to remove about 100-200 apps that were no longer needed. I said Y. Many of the apps were python apps so I logged out and back in to make sure everything was still working. Seemed to be.

I reinstalled the binary from the tar file I downloaded and confirmed that the issue still exists.

Off to do some DDG searching ...

[GreyGeek]

Found this interesting FAQ item:

8. Wouldn't it be way better if Sage did not ship as a gigantic bundle?

This has been discussed over and over again and it plainly doesn't work. The Sage in Debian does not pass doctests, not even close. In general the combinatorial explosion of configurations to debug is way too large and it is next to impossible to find any distribution where the version numbers even remotely match. We updated to GAP 4.4.12 in Sage 3.3 and the doctests involving GAP will in certain files be broken with any previous GAP release. If you used the Debian packages for Singular Sage won't work since we patch NTL and when those NTL libs come in conflict either Sage doesn't compile or Singular blows up. I can go on and on and on about similar issues and that is only the stuff I know about right on top of my head. I have never taken the time to go out and do dumb things to break Sage

That's why downloading the 1.8GB BINARY and installing it according to the READ.ME file is the best way to install SageMath.