M2.2: Failed to set ini option

Question

I feel this ought to be a simple fix, but I am not finding any straightforward solutions. Initially I thought it was a permissions thing, but the config files reflect the correct username and password. I'm stumped.

Error Message

There was an Error Processing Your Request

Failed to set ini option "session.save_handler" to value "files".

Steps to reproduce

1. Install a fresh copy of Magento 2.2.4 via GoDaddy's cPanel Installatron.
2. Go to anywhere in the Magento directory. This message apears.

Expected result

1. The homepage or a login screen. No error message.

Actual result

1. Error message appears wherever in the Magento directory you go.

Environment

• Magento 2.2.4 (auto-updated from v.2.2.3 a couple weeks before the issue appeared.)
• Plain Magento. No additional extensions, plugins or addons, aside from what already comes packaged with the Magento 2.2.4 install.
• Linux. GoDaddy Hosted. cPanel. 2GB RAM. 2 CPUs.
• Magento installed in directory /shop/
• SSL Certificate in use.
• Magento Base URL (both Secured and Unsecured) are set like: https://www.example.com/shop/ (note the "s" in "https", the "www." subdomain, the directory "shop", and the trailing forward-slash)
• htaccess redirects any non-WWW traffic to www subdomain.
• PHP 7.1.17 (All required extensions installed and functioning)
• MySQL 5.6.39

Preconditions

• The site was running perfectly at version 2.2.3 for three weeks.
• The auto-update to 2.2.4 broke my site instantly... But I followed some safe-sounding forum solutions to fix it.
• Site ran perfectly again as ver. 2.2.4 for another two weeks but then suddenly, last week, I couldn't log in anymore, and other parts of the site began malfunctioning as well.
• Note: As the site was working fine, no changes were made to the code for weeks. The issue occurred seemingly on its own.
• I followed several forum remedies (rolling back each time they didn't work before trying a new "solution"), but no suggestions worked worked.
• In defeat, I reset my server completely, installed a FRESH copy of Magento 2.2.4 (via GoDaddy's "Installatron" again) (thus also skipping v2.2.3 altogether this time) -Problem resurfaced with the same error message right away.

Answer 1

I had the same issue.

Magento 2 tries to set the value of some configuration options in initIniOptions() function of SessionManager class (/vendor/magento/framework/Session/SessionManager.php), like 'session.save_handler'; in same system this operation is not allowed.

This problem is solved in Magento 2.3 version so the solution to your problem is temporarily to overwrite initIniOptions() function. See here: Magento 2.3 SessionManager.php