Configuring Drupal8 fails

[Carmel NY]

I am looking for someone with experience with Drupal8. I am not able to get
this application up and running. I have read the documentation that came with
the program and even purchased the "Beginning Drupal8" by Todd Tomlnson. Alas,
without success. The setup script freezes immediately after entering the
database info. The tables are entered into the MySQL database, but that is it.
I am also continually receiving a "time" error that I cannot understand or
correct.

FreeBSD 11.1-RELEASE-p3 (amd64)
PHP 5.6.32 (cli)
mysql Ver 14.14 Distrib 5.6.38

This is the error message:


    Warning: DateTime::createFromFormat(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response->__construct() (line 231 of vendor/symfony/http-foundation/Response.php).

    Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response->__construct('', 302, Array) (Line: 37)
    Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\RedirectResponse->__construct('https://seibercom.net/drupal/core/install.php?langcode=en&profile=standard&continue=1&id=1&op=start') (Line: 868)
    batch_process(Object, Object) (Line: 627)
    install_run_task(Array, Array) (Line: 548)
    install_run_tasks(Array) (Line: 117)
    install_drupal(Object) (Line: 44)

    Warning: DateTime::createFromFormat(): It is not safe to rely on the system's timezone settings. You are *required* to use the date.timezone setting or the date_default_timezone_set() function. In case you used any of those methods and you are still getting this warning, you most likely misspelled the timezone identifier. We selected the timezone 'UTC' for now, but please set date.timezone to select your timezone. in Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response->__construct() (line 231 of vendor/symfony/http-foundation/Response.php).

    Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response->__construct() (Line: 160)
    _drupal_log_error(Array, 1) (Line: 584)
    _drupal_exception_handler(Object)

The website encountered an unexpected error. Please try again later.
RuntimeException: Failed to start the session because headers have already been sent by "/usr/local/www/drupal8/vendor/symfony/http-foundation/Response.php" at line 231. in Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\NativeSessionStorage->start() (line 135 of vendor/symfony/http-foundation/Session/Storage/NativeSessionStorage.php).

Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Storage\NativeSessionStorage->start() (Line: 163)
Drupal\Core\Session\SessionManager->startNow() (Line: 194)
Drupal\Core\Session\SessionManager->save() (Line: 181)
Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Session\Session->save() (Line: 630)
install_run_task(Array, Array) (Line: 548)
install_run_tasks(Array) (Line: 117)
install_drupal(Object) (Line: 44)

Output from drush:

/usr/local/www/drupal8 $ drush status
 Drupal version                  :  8.4.1
 Site URI                        :  http://default
 Database driver                 :  mysql
 Database hostname               :  localhost
 Database port                   :  3306
 Database username               :  drupal8
 Database name                   :  drupal8test
 Database                        :  Connected
 Drupal bootstrap                :  Successful
 Drupal user                     :
 Default theme                   :  bartik
 Administration theme            :  seven
 PHP configuration               :
 PHP OS                          :  FreeBSD
 Drush script                    :  /usr/local/bin/drush.phar
 Drush version                   :  8.1.15
 Drush temp directory            :  /tmp
 Drush configuration             :
 Drush alias files               :
 Install profile                 :  standard
 Drupal root                     :  /usr/local/www/drupal8
 Drupal Settings File            :  sites/default/settings.php
 Site path                       :  sites/default
 File directory path             :  sites/default/files
 Temporary file directory path   :  /tmp
 Sync config path                :  sites/default/files/config_W2GexTQYdiqewip5EuozgBoCmm_HKIRNmv_joumbSeuP_0VpnO8InBK8vpTGaTjZz75baUqriw/sync

I don't want to tie up this forum. If someone with knowledge of this problem wants to contact me off-list,I would be extremely appreciative.

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Carmel