Greetz!
Haven't this posted for 2013 yet! So here goes:
I've got a home lab consisting of an DNS server (wingtip.com) and a second server as a single box install of SP2013 RTM and SQL 2012.
I setup the Search service and ran a crawl. It found my files in the default and in the fileshare content sources. When I go to one of the sites to run a search I get the "The search request was unable to connect to the Search Service" error. "Fetching app info failed:...Search.Query.SearchServiceNotFoundException..." and "Getting user preference failed:...Search.Query.SearchServiceNotFoundException..."
I checked the search databases in MMS and SP_Services was in security/user so I made that the crawl account and also an administrator for the user profile service. I made this account the Query App pool account as well. None of this made a difference. Same error.
Any ideas?
Love them all...regardless. - Buddha