Why "atomic host status" fails with a timeout message and logs have "Key file does not start with a group" on Red Hat Enterprise Atomic host 7 ?

Issue

• Why "atomic host status" fails with a timeout message and logs have "Key file does not start with a group" on Red Hat Enterprise Atomic host 7 ?

Jan 31 22:16:50 test dbus[5831]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.projectatomic.rpmostree1' unit='rpm-ostreed.service'
Jan 31 22:16:50 test systemd[1]: Starting RPM-OSTree System Management Daemon...
Jan 31 22:16:50 test rpm-ostree[18826]: Reading config file '/etc/rpm-ostreed.conf'
Jan 31 22:16:50 test rpm-ostree[18826]: error: Couldn't start daemon: Error setting up sysroot: Key file does not start with a group
Jan 31 22:16:50 test systemd[1]: rpm-ostreed.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jan 31 22:16:50 test systemd[1]: Failed to start RPM-OSTree System Management Daemon.
Jan 31 22:16:50 test systemd[1]: Unit rpm-ostreed.service entered failed state.
Jan 31 22:16:50 test systemd[1]: rpm-ostreed.service failed.