I'm trying to build a small MOSS07 multi-server farm (Web+Query/ Index
/ DB), following the Microsoft deployment guidelines. However I'm stuck
trying to get the Query service running on my WFE. I started by
specifying the locations of index files and propagation folder:
stsadm -o osearch -action start -role Query -farmserviceaccount
srant\wssbso -farmservicepassword foobar -propagationlocation
c:\SharePoint\Index\Temp -defaultindexlocation c:\SharePoint\Index\Data
which failed with
The search service instance on this server is not online
I then dropped the folder locations (in case it was a folder permissions
problem) to use the defaults:
stsadm -o osearch -action start -role Query -farmserviceaccount
srant\wssbso -farmservicepassword foobar
Now I got
'start' action failed. Additional information: Method failed with
unexpected error code 3.
If I try to use the CAS ui to provision instead, I eventually end up
with the same 'unexpected error code 3' error.

As usual, the ULS logs are useless, lots of random chatter but nothing
that even shows where/when the error occurred, much less a root cause.

So at present, my Office search config (-o osearch -action list) looks
like:
Farm contact e-mail: sharepoint@odin
Farm service account: srant\wssbso
Farm performance level: PartlyReduced

ODIN:
Status: Online
Role: Index

*ZELDA:
Status: Disabled
Role: Query

Thoughts? Suggestions? Appreciate any guidance.