Sharepoint Foundation 2010 Search Not Available

Question

I've just completed an installation of SharePoint Foundation 2010 and I can't get searching to work.

In Central Administration, there is no service application listed for search.

When I go into the Manage Content Database Settings page, the option "Select Microsoft SharePoint Foundation search server" is greyed-out.

In the Services MMC, "SharePoint Foundation Search Service V4" is listed as disabled. I can get this service running for a short time, but eventually it stops and automatically reverts back to the disabled state.

What did we do wrong to make searching completely unavailable in our SharePoint Foundation 2010 installation? How do we get it fixed?

EDIT--->

I changed the log on account for "SharePoint Foundation Search V4" service. The service now starts automatically and is no longer disabled. However, when I go to Central Admin->Manage Service Applications, I still don't see a search service listed. I also still cannot assign a search server to the content databases.

I've tried repairing the SharePoint installation and rebooting the box. I feel like I'm one step closer - but I still don't have search functionality on the site.

EDIT #2--->

I checked the databases on this system and there is no search database listed. On our old WSS 3.0 system there was a database dedicated to search for SharePoint. I'm not sure if this database is missing from the 2010 Foundation server or if 2010 doesn't use a separate database anymore?