Satellite: cobblerd does not start and producing the error "ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded"

Issue

Cobblerd throws one of the below traceback messages upon startup:

[root@satellite ~]# service cobblerd start
Starting cobbler daemon: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/cobblerd", line 76, in main
    api = cobbler_api.BootAPI(is_cobblerd=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 128, in __init__
    self.deserialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 689, in deserialize
    return self._config.deserialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/config.py", line 208, in deserialize
    serializer.deserialize(self._profiles)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/serializer.py", line 122, in deserialize
    rc = storage_module.deserialize(obj,topological)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/modules/serializer_catalog.py", line 186, in deserialize
    datastruct = deserialize_raw(obj.collection_type())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/modules/serializer_catalog.py", line 156, in deserialize_raw
    datastruct = simplejson.loads(ydata, encoding='utf-8')
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/simplejson/__init__.py", line 318, in loads
    return cls(encoding=encoding, **kw).decode(s)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/simplejson/decoder.py", line 335, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/simplejson/decoder.py", line 353, in raw_decode
    raise ValueError("No JSON object could be decoded")
ValueError: No JSON object could be decoded

[root@hacsstc008 init.d]# ./cobblerd start
Starting cobbler daemon: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/cobblerd", line 76, in main
    api = cobbler_api.BootAPI(is_cobblerd=True)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 128, in __init__
    self.deserialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 689, in deserialize
    return self._config.deserialize()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/config.py", line 210, in deserialize
    serializer.deserialize(self._systems)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/serializer.py", line 122, in deserialize
    rc = storage_module.deserialize(obj,topological)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/modules/serializer_catalog.py", line 188, in deserialize
    datastruct.sort(__depth_cmp)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/cobbler/modules/serializer_catalog.py", line 198, in __depth_cmp
    d1 = item1.get("depth",1)
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'get'