[I'm asking this question again, hopefully with more clarity.]
We use MediaWiki only via apache https, using authorization,
AuthType Basic
Require Group insiders
Thus, only a trusted group of people can access the wiki.
Ideally, MediaWiki could be configurable to get the login name from
apache and then to automatically log in the user to the wiki.
Apparently this is impossible.
Is there a some way to allow our users to login to apache and then
not have to login again to the wiki (except for the first time)?