Karl,
Remember that you're working with HEAD. At this point in time there is phenomenal activity due to the upcoming release of 5.0. I did see a problem with redirecting to to https on HEAD a few days ago that caused the same type of symptom you describe. As of yesterday that symptom disappeared for me. You could try to sync up with current HEAD CVS, but HEAD will be a moving target until the 5.0 branch occurs. You may be better served by the 4.x branch for your tests until HEAD settles down.
Randy