My linux headless server won't run

[Gefo]

I set up a VM on google cloud and installed everything there, the headless client, factorio-init and updater scripts. I followed the guide that's on reddit step by step and configured every json accordingly.

The server won't launch when I use the factorio-init commands. Well, actually it says it launches, and it generates a log but when I check the status it says it's offline. I'm guessing I messed up some of the json files, but I really can't tell where I messed up, so I need some help troubleshooting.

I made a user called factorio that is the one running the scripts, and I made it the owner of every folder, so I'm guessing it's not a permissions issue.

I'll put every json I know I configured and checked, and the current-log

Current log

0.000 2016-12-12 23:29:29; Factorio 0.14.21 (build 25327, linux64, headless)
0.045 Operating system: Linux (Ubuntu 16.04)
0.045 Program arguments: "/opt/factorio/bin/x64/factorio" "--config" "/opt/factorio/config/config.ini" "--port" "34197" "--start-server-load-latest" "--server-settings" "/opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json"
0.045 Read data path: /opt/factorio/data
0.045 Write data path: /opt/factorio
0.045 Binaries path: /opt/factorio/bin
0.054 System info: [CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU @ 2.30GHz, 1 core, RAM: 1696MB]
0.054 Running in headless mode
0.056 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua)
0.059 Loading mod base 0.14.21 (data.lua)
0.134 Checksum for core: 1291735968
0.134 Checksum for mod base: 786624017
0.474 Info PlayerData.cpp:55: Local player-data.json available, timestamp 1481221014
0.474 Info PlayerData.cpp:62: Cloud player-data.json unavailable
0.475 Custom inputs active: 0
0.475 Info Updater.cpp:749: Downloading https://updater.factorio.com/get-availa ... iVersion=2
0.710 0 packages available to download (experimental updates disabled).
0.714 Factorio initialised
0.714 Error Util.cpp:57: Error while reading file /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json: /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json(60): expected value

Server settings:

{
"name": "Gefo",
"description": "Vanilla+",
"tags": ["game", "tags"],

"_comment_max_players": "Maximum number of players allowed, admins can join even a full server. 0 means unlimited.",
"max_players": 0,

"_comment_visibility": ["public: Game will be published on the official Factorio matching server",
"lan: Game will be broadcast on LAN"],
"visibility":
{
"public": true,
"lan": true
},

"_comment_credentials": "Your factorio.com login credentials. Required for games with visibility public",
"username": "Gefo",
"password": "mypassword",

"_comment_token": "Authentication token. May be used instead of 'password' above.",
# "token": "",

"game_password": "",

"_comment_require_user_verification": "When set to true, the server will only allow clients that have a valid Factorio.com account",
"require_user_verification": false,

"_comment_max_upload_in_kilobytes_per_second" : "optional, default value is 0. 0 means unlimited.",
"max_upload_in_kilobytes_per_second": 0,

"_comment_minimum_latency_in_ticks": "optional one tick is 16ms in default speed, default value is 0. 0 means no minimum.",
"minimum_latency_in_ticks": 100,

"_comment_ignore_player_limit_for_returning_players": "Players that played on this map already can join even when the max player limit was reached.",
"ignore_player_limit_for_returning_players": false,

"_comment_allow_commands": "possible values are, true, false and admins-only",
"allow_commands": "admins-only",

"_comment_autosave_interval": "Autosave interval in minutes",
"autosave_interval": 10,

"_comment_autosave_slots": "server autosave slots, it is cycled through when the server autosaves.",
"autosave_slots": 1,

"_comment_afk_autokick_interval": "How many minutes until someone is kicked when doing nothing, 0 for never.",
"afk_autokick_interval": 0,

"_comment_auto_pause": "Whether should the server be paused when no players are present.",
"auto_pause": true,

"only_admins_can_pause_the_game": true,

"_comment_autosave_only_on_server": "Whether autosaves should be saved only on server or also on all connected clients. Default is true.",
"autosave_only_on_server": true,

"_comment_admins": "List of case insensitive usernames, that will be promoted immediately",
"admins":
}

Config file on factorio-init

#!/bin/bash

# Enable debugging, useful when you want to figure out why
# this script is not behaving the way you expect it to do
DEBUG=0

# What do you want to call this service?
SERVICE_NAME="Factorio"

# Which user/group is running factorio?
# Running any public service as "root" is generally not recommended
USERNAME=factorio
USERGROUP=factorio

# The absolute path to the factorio directory
FACTORIO_PATH=/opt/factorio
# Server settings file, see data/server-settings.example.json
SERVER_SETTINGS=${FACTORIO_PATH}/data/server-settings.json

# Port on which you want to run the server
PORT=34197

# Save the command/chat/log on server start? Default location /opt/factorio/server.out
# Setting this to 0 will cause the script to erase the log file on each start
# If you set this to 1 you might want to apply logrotate on the log or it will eventually fill your disk
SAVELOG=0

# Factorio comes packaged in a tarball containing the directory named "factorio"
# when using this scripts update/install command we expect to see this very
# directory. If you want to supply your own update/install tar other than what you can download
# from factorio.com/downloads you can use this option to tell the script this is ok.
#
# If you place your factorio install within a directory named "factorio" and you update/install
# with the official tarball you can safely ignore this option.
PACKAGE_DIR_NAME=factorio

#
# narcotiq made a sweet update script for factorio and by cloning into this
# you can simply run "factorio update" provided you configure the below arguments
# To install the updater:
#
# git clone https://github.com/narc0tiq/factorio-updater
#

# absolute path to the factorio-updater script
UPDATE_SCRIPT=/opt/factorio-updater/update_factorio.py
# Note that if you set HEADLESS=1 the username/token will not be used as the headless
# download is provided free of charge
HEADLESS=1
UPDATE_USERNAME=Gefo
UPDATE_TOKEN=MyPassword
UPDATE_EXPERIMENTAL=0
UPDATE_TMPDIR=/tmp

# Extras
# Additional binary arguments, these will be sent to the binary when issuing the "start" command
EXTRA_BINARGS=""

[Nexela]

Take a peek at the last line in the log file

0.714 Error Util.cpp:57: Error while reading file /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json: /opt/factorio/data/server-settings.json(60): expected value

It is telling you that server-settings line 60 expected a value and didn't get one.

My guess is this is line 60 of your server settings: might be able to fix by either adding an in-game username to the list or adding a blank string "" or by commenting out the admins line. I don't run headless so I can't say for 100% sure this is the problem.

"_comment_admins": "List of case insensitive usernames, that will be promoted immediately",
"admins":

[Gefo]

You are right. I fixed it but I got another error:

1.475 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:658: mapTick(-1) changing state from(PreparedToHostGame) to(CreatingGame)
1.480 Loading map /opt/factorio/saves/..zip
1.509 Error ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:93: MultiplayerManager failed: "File /opt/factorio/saves/..zip/info.json not found"
1.509 Info ServerMultiplayerManager.cpp:658: mapTick(-1) changing state from(CreatingGame) to(InitializationFailed)
1.530 Error Main.cpp:509: Couldn't load the game for MP: File /opt/factorio/saves/..zip/info.json not found

I looked into the save's info.json file and it's empy, it says:

{
}

[Gefo]

Oh shit I think I got it running, I kept running into errors and fixing them, I think it was an issue with the save, so I deleted everything and created a new save and it launched successfully.