Roundup1.2.x
Installed the basic setup and use web interface to
enter a few tickets and the sort and group will not
sort in descending order.

Resolve by fixing these lines in issue.index.html.
From:

<input type="checkbox" name="@sortdir"
              tal:attributes="checked python:key and
key[0] == '-'">

To:
<input type="checkbox" 
              tal:attributes="name
python:'@sortdir%d'%n;checked python:key and key[0] ==
'-'">

Did the same fix for group. 

The query string now reads
     ...@sortdir0=on....

instead of
     ...@sortdir=on....

With this fix, sort/group working again!