can you "truss" or "ktrace" the admin_php, see if it get the request?
You can enable debug logging for admin console by changing lsws/admin/conf/admin_config.xml, <logLevel> from "ERROR" to "DEBUG".
If I run ktrace -p <pid> for admin_php nothing happens. The command is accepted. No errors.
When I access the login page via a browser, in the admin logs I see the following: