Index: src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/ConfigProperties.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/ConfigProperties.java	(revision 1341013)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/ConfigProperties.java	(working copy)
@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@
     private static final String KARAF_SHUTDOWN_COMMAND = "karaf.shutdown.command";
 
     private static final String KARAF_SHUTDOWN_PID_FILE = "karaf.shutdown.pid.file";
+    
+    static final String KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_URI = "karaf.startup.feature.uri";
+    
+    private static final String KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_NAME = "karaf.startup.feature.name";
 
     private static final String DEFAULT_SHUTDOWN_COMMAND = "SHUTDOWN";
 
@@ -133,6 +137,8 @@
     String includes;
     String optionals;
     File etcFolder;
+    URI startupFeatureUri;
+    String startupFeatureName;
     
     public ConfigProperties() throws Exception {
         this.karafHome = Utils.getKarafHome(ConfigProperties.class, PROP_KARAF_HOME, ENV_KARAF_HOME);
@@ -183,6 +189,10 @@
         this.shutdownHost = props.getProperty(KARAF_SHUTDOWN_HOST, "localhost");
         this.portFile = props.getProperty(KARAF_SHUTDOWN_PORT_FILE);
         this.shutdownCommand = props.getProperty(KARAF_SHUTDOWN_COMMAND, DEFAULT_SHUTDOWN_COMMAND);
+        if (props.getProperty(KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_URI) != null) {
+            this.startupFeatureUri = new URI(props.getProperty(KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_URI));
+        }
+        this.startupFeatureName = props.getProperty(KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_NAME, "framework");
     }
     
     private String getProperyOrFail(String propertyName) {
Index: src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReader.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReader.java	(revision 0)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReader.java	(working copy)
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.karaf.main;
+
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Element;
+import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
+
+class FeatureReader {
+    List<BundleInfo> readBundles(URI featureUri, String featureName) throws Exception {
+        InputStream is = featureUri.toURL().openStream();
+        DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
+        Document doc = db.parse(is);
+        is.close();
+        NodeList features = doc.getElementsByTagName("feature");
+        for (int c=0; c<features.getLength(); c++) {
+            Element feature = (Element) features.item(c);
+            String name = feature.getAttribute("name");
+            if (featureName.equals(name)) {
+                NodeList bundleNodes = feature.getElementsByTagName("bundle");
+                return getBundles(bundleNodes);
+            }
+        }
+        return new ArrayList<BundleInfo>();
+    }
+
+    private List<BundleInfo> getBundles(NodeList bundleNodes) throws URISyntaxException {
+        ArrayList<BundleInfo> bundles = new ArrayList<BundleInfo>();
+        for (int c=0; c<bundleNodes.getLength(); c++) {
+            Element bundleNode = (Element)bundleNodes.item(c);
+            String startLevel = bundleNode.getAttribute("start-level");
+            String uri = bundleNode.getFirstChild().getNodeValue();
+            BundleInfo bi = new BundleInfo();
+            if (startLevel != null) {
+                bi.startLevel = new Integer(startLevel);
+            }
+            bi.uri = new URI(uri);
+            bundles.add(bi);
+        }
+        return bundles;
+    }
+}
Index: src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/Main.java
===================================================================
--- src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/Main.java	(revision 1341013)
+++ src/main/java/org/apache/karaf/main/Main.java	(working copy)
@@ -20,12 +20,9 @@
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
 import java.io.File;
-import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
-import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URI;
-import java.net.URISyntaxException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLClassLoader;
 import java.security.Provider;
@@ -241,9 +238,23 @@
 
             LOG.info("Installing and starting initial bundles");
             File startupPropsFile = new File(config.etcFolder, STARTUP_PROPERTIES_FILE_NAME);
-            List<BundleInfo> bundles = readBundlesFromStartupProperties(startupPropsFile);        
-            installAndStartBundles(resolver, framework.getBundleContext(), bundles);
-            LOG.info("All initial bundles installed and set to start");
+            if (startupPropsFile.exists()) {
+                LOG.info("Installing and starting bundles from " + startupPropsFile);
+                List<BundleInfo> bundles = readBundlesFromStartupProperties(startupPropsFile);        
+                installAndStartBundles(resolver, framework.getBundleContext(), bundles);
+            }
+            
+            if (config.startupFeatureUri != null) {
+                LOG.info("Installing and starting bundles from startup feature uri " + config.startupFeatureUri + ", name " + config.startupFeatureName);
+                URI resolvedStartupFeatureUri = resolver.resolve(config.startupFeatureUri);
+                List<BundleInfo> bundles = new FeatureReader().readBundles(resolvedStartupFeatureUri, config.startupFeatureName);
+                installAndStartBundles(resolver, framework.getBundleContext(), bundles);
+            }
+            int numBundles = framework.getBundleContext().getBundles().length -1;
+            if (numBundles == 0) {
+                throw new RuntimeException("No bundles loaded. You either need a etc/startup.properties or set " + ConfigProperties.KARAF_STARTUP_FEATURE_URI + " in config.properties");
+            }
+            LOG.info(numBundles + " initial bundles installed and set to start");
         }
 
         ServerInfo serverInfo = new ServerInfoImpl(args, config);
Index: src/test/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReaderTest.java
===================================================================
--- src/test/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReaderTest.java	(revision 0)
+++ src/test/java/org/apache/karaf/main/FeatureReaderTest.java	(working copy)
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+ * software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+ * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+ * KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+ * specific language governing permissions and limitations
+ * under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.karaf.main;
+
+import java.net.URI;
+import java.net.URISyntaxException;
+import java.net.URL;
+import java.util.List;
+
+import org.junit.Assert;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+public class FeatureReaderTest {
+    
+    @Test
+    public void testReadBundlesFromFeature() throws URISyntaxException, Exception {
+        URL res = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("test-karaf-home/system/org/apache/karaf/features/framework/1.0.0/framework-1.0.0-features.xml");
+        List<BundleInfo> bundles = new FeatureReader().readBundles(res.toURI(), "framework");
+        Assert.assertEquals(1, bundles.size());
+        Assert.assertEquals(10, bundles.get(0).startLevel.intValue());
+        Assert.assertEquals(new URI("mvn:org.apache.aries.blueprint/org.apache.aries.blueprint.api/0.3.1"), bundles.get(0).uri);
+    }
+}
Index: src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/config.properties
===================================================================
--- src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/config.properties	(revision 1341013)
+++ src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/config.properties	(working copy)
@@ -39,3 +39,4 @@
 karaf.startlevel.bundle=60
 karaf.name=root
 karaf.default.repository=system
+karaf.startup.feature.uri=mvn:org.apache.karaf.features/framework/1.0.0/xml/features
Index: src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/startup.properties
===================================================================
--- src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/startup.properties	(revision 1341013)
+++ src/test/resources/test-karaf-home/etc/startup.properties	(working copy)
@@ -23,6 +23,4 @@
 #
 # Startup core services like logging
 #
-mvn\:org.apache.aries.blueprint/org.apache.aries.blueprint.api/0.3.1=10
 pax-url-mvn.jar=10
-#mvn\:org.apache.felix/org.apache.felix.configadmin/1.2.8=10