Pi3B, Raspbian Stretch, Shrewsoft VPN, no save, won't open

[P A Fox]

Pi 3B (not B+), official power supply, USB keyboard & mouse, ethernet connected (not Wifi), 16GB microSD card, Raspbian Stretch dated 10-09-2018 kernel 4.14, want to use Shrew Soft VPN to connect to work Fortigate device over IPSec VPN. I have 2 issues:

1) in different attempts, I have downloaded & installed Shrew Soft ike & ikegui with all noted dependencies using the Raspbian Add/Remove Software utility, thru the terminal 'apt-get' command, and thru Synaptic (after loading it). Opening the application with both the menu link, as well as the terminal, the first "Shrew Soft VPN Access Manager" box opens. Here I click "Add" for a new connection, and the "VPN Site Configuration" box opens. I add the pertinent information for my company's VPN access, and click Save. I can then export these settings to basically a txt file. If I then close the "Access Manager" box, and re-open, no settings are available now, nothing has been saved. I can import the settings I just saved previously, but this cycle continues - close the "Access Manager" and re-open, nothing is saved.

2) Once I import the above settings, and attempt to "Connect", a second window ought to open called "Shrew Soft VPN Connect", where I would enter my user name/ pw, and also where I see if the tunnel is enabled. This second box is not opening. I have seen the small hourglass by my mouse for a couple seconds, but that then goes away and nothing has changed. I cannot move forward. The cycle documented above continues to occur.

I have used Shrew Soft with great success across multiple devices of various Linux (Debian-based) & Windows types. I have asked at the Shrew Soft mailing list and they had mentioned Qt. With my limited skills I have verified that this Pi3B has all the pertinent Qt dependencies/ packages that I am able to find. I have also attempted a version of Raspbian Jessie and loaded Shrew Soft, but the same issues occur.

I have found the following forum post, which appears to state this user has a working Shrew Soft installation:
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/83064/raspberry-pi-as-vpn-client-access-point
I have not contacted that poster for more info, at this time.

I have some experience with command line, but I would call myself an intermediate beginner. I am willing to learn, and am willing to post any output necessary, tho I don't know what is useful to you at this point. ANY help at this point is Greatly Appreciated - THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!