[rt-users] Cookie-based auth works, but takes me to login page

[Christopher P. Lindsey]

I've set up our RT installation to redirect non-authenticated users to
a page that authenticates them, sets a cookie and updates a database,
and then redirects them to the RT 'home' page.

After the redirect users are sent to the RT login page, but it looks
weird.  Our logo is scaled to be very large, the screen color is wrong,
etc.

Anyhow, if they hit reload at the login page RT reloads and takes them
to their dashboard and displays everything properly.

How can I tell RT to take them directly to their dashboard instead
of displaying the Login page after successfully authenticating with
RT::Authen::ExternalAuth::DBI::Cookie?

Here's what the logs show right before the login page is displayed:

   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: ExternalInfoPriority not defined. User information (including user enabled/disabled cannot be externally-sourced (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:162)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Attempting to use external auth service: My_SSO_Cookie (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:213)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: RT::Authen::ExternalAuth::DBI::GetCookieAuth Checking Browser Cookies for an Authenticated User (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth/DBI.pm:502)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Cookie Found :: rtauth (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth/DBI/Cookie.pm:98)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: User ( ------- ) was authenticated by a browser cookie (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth/DBI.pm:582)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Pass not going to be checked, attempting SSO (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:234)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Password check bypassed due to SSO method being in use (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:301)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Password Validation Check Result:  1 (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:308)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Authentication successful. Now updating user information and attempting login. (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:328)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [info]: Successful login for ------- from 10.0.0.1 (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/lib/RT/Authen/ExternalAuth.pm:368)
   [Fri Jan 24 08:31:14 2014] [debug]: Autohandler called ExternalAuth. Response: (1, Successful login) (/usr/services/rt-4.0.16/local/plugins/RT-Authen-ExternalAuth/html/Elements/DoAuth:16)

Thanks for any tips,

Chris

tl;dr:  Cookie-based auth takes me to a login page instead of a dashboard.  
        Reloading the login page displays the proper dashboard.  How can I
        just go directly to the dashboard?