Installation stuck on FTS setting check

I'm trying to install SugarCRM 7.6.1 onto Ubuntu 12.04, ElasticSearch 1.4.4.

After filling out the Database Configuration page, I click Next.  A small modal pops up related to DB settings validation, which then goes away, and I'm left back at the install page.  Nothing else happens.  The install.log file shows this:

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Begin DB Check Process *************

2016-01-08 22:24:09...testing with mysql:mysqli

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Basic form info is valid, continuing Process.

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Testing user account...

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Connection made using  host: localhost, usr: root

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Testing priviliged account...

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Connection made using  host: localhost, usr: root

2016-01-08 22:24:09...DB not selected, will create sugarcrm

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Passed DB install check

2016-01-08 22:24:09...Begining to check FTS Settings.

After putting in some debugging lines, I was able to determine that it gets to line 435 of include/SugarSearchEngine/Elastic/SugarSearchEngineElastic.php but it never returns as far as I can tell, and there are no errors in install.log or sugarcrm.log.

I've also checked that I can get to my ES instance with curl -X GET 'http://localhost:9200', where I get this in return:

{

  "status" : 200,

  "name" : "SugarCRM",

  "cluster_name" : "sugarcrm",

  "version" : {

    "number" : "1.4.4",

    "build_hash" : "c88f77ffc81301dfa9dfd81ca2232f09588bd512",

    "build_timestamp" : "2015-02-19T13:05:36Z",

    "build_snapshot" : false,

    "lucene_version" : "4.10.3"

  },

  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"

}

Any help as to what might be the issue, I would really appreciate it.  Thanks.