There is an approach from Ales, which introduces a new state 'Reset' and resets the context to Described when it cannot get resolved.

http://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbossas/projects/demos/microcontainer/trunk/igloo/src/main/java/org/jboss/demos/bootstrap/igloo/deployers/

This approach fails however for bundles with self dependencies.

I also have made an attempt which involves a LifecycleCallbackItem and uses the PackageAdmin in a seperate Thread to resolve and progress bundles

http://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbossas/projects/jboss-osgi/projects/runtime/microcontainer/trunk/src/main/java/org/jboss/osgi/plugins/deployers/bundle/OSGiBundleResolverDeployer.java

 public void deploy(DeploymentUnit unit, OSGiBundleState bundleState) throws DeploymentException
 {
 bundleState.getBundleManager();

 ControllerContext context = unit.getAttachment(ControllerContext.class);
 DependencyInfo di = context.getDependencyInfo();

 LifecycleCallbackItem lifecycleCallbackItem = new LifecycleCallback(unit);
 di.addLifecycleCallback(lifecycleCallbackItem);
 }

 private class LifecycleCallback implements LifecycleCallbackItem
 {
 private DeploymentUnit unit;
 private PackageAdmin packageAdmin;
 private DeployerClient deployerClient;

 public LifecycleCallback(DeploymentUnit unit)
 {
 this.unit = unit;

 OSGiBundleState bundleState = unit.getAttachment(OSGiBundleState.class);
 BundleContext sysContext = bundleState.getBundleManager().getSystemContext();
 ServiceReference sref = sysContext.getServiceReference(PackageAdmin.class.getName());
 packageAdmin = (PackageAdmin)sysContext.getService(sref);

 deployerClient = unit.getAttachment(MainDeployer.class);
 }

 public void uninstall(ControllerContext ctx)
 {
 OSGiBundleState bundleState = unit.getAttachment(OSGiBundleState.class);
 unresolvedBundles.remove(bundleState);
 }

 public void install(ControllerContext ctx) throws Exception
 {
 Runnable runnable = new Runnable()
 {
 public void run()
 {
 try
 {
 // [TODO] remove this hack and find a way to trigger
 // PackageAdmin after the context has been deployed
 Thread.sleep(100);
 }
 catch (InterruptedException e)
 {
 // ignore
 }

 OSGiBundleState bundleState = unit.getAttachment(OSGiBundleState.class);

 // Add the new bundle to the list of unresolved
 unresolvedBundles.add(0, bundleState);
 OSGiBundleState[] unresolved = new OSGiBundleState[unresolvedBundles.size()];
 unresolvedBundles.toArray(unresolved);

 // Try to resolve all unresolved bundles
 packageAdmin.resolveBundles(unresolved);
 if (bundleState.getState() != Bundle.RESOLVED)
 log.info("Unresolved: " + bundleState);

 for (OSGiBundleState aux : unresolved)
 {
 if (aux.getState() == Bundle.RESOLVED)
 {
 unresolvedBundles.remove(aux);

 try
 {
 // When resolved progress to INSTALLED
 String name = aux.getDeploymentUnit().getName();
 deployerClient.change(name, DeploymentStages.INSTALLED);
 }
 catch (DeploymentException ex)
 {
 log.error(ex);
 }
 }
 }
 }
 };
 new Thread(runnable).start();
 }

 public ControllerState getWhenRequired()
 {
 return new ControllerState(getStage().getName());
 }

 public ControllerState getDependentState()
 {
 return null;
 }

 public Object getBean()
 {
 return null;
 }
 }

To reproduce

#1 Build the installer

mvn -Pdistro clean install

#2 Install MC Framework in jboss-5.2.0 minimal

#3 Delete default bundles

rm -rf server/minimal/deploy/osgi

#4 Start the server

12:12:55,287 INFO [OSGiBundleManager] JBossOSGi Runtime - Microcontainer
12:12:55,288 INFO [OSGiBundleManager] 1.0.2-SNAPSHOT
12:12:55,293 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTING: Bundle{system.bundle:0.0.0}
12:12:55,335 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Service REGISTERED: Service{id=1 bundle=system.bundle:0.0.0 classes=[org.jboss.osgi.spi.service.MicrocontainerService]}
12:12:55,400 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Service REGISTERED: Service{id=2 bundle=system.bundle:0.0.0 classes=[org.osgi.service.packageadmin.PackageAdmin]}
12:12:55,404 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Service REGISTERED: Service{id=3 bundle=system.bundle:0.0.0 classes=[org.osgi.service.startlevel.StartLevel]}
12:12:55,407 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTED: Bundle{system.bundle:0.0.0}
12:12:55,409 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Framwork STARTED
12:12:55,664 INFO [ProfileServiceBootstrap] Loading profile: ProfileKey@3c4c33[domain=default, server=default, name=minimal]
12:12:55,666 INFO [AbstractServer] Started: JBoss Server[5.2.0.Beta1 (build: SVNTag=JBoss_5_2_0_Beta1 date=200909022330)] in 14s:470ms

12:16:15,779 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle INSTALLED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleA:0.0.0}
12:16:15,938 INFO [OSGiBundleResolverDeployer] Unresolved: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleA:0.0.0}

12:16:50,849 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle INSTALLED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleX:0.0.0}
12:16:50,968 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle RESOLVED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleX:0.0.0}
12:16:50,973 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle RESOLVED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleA:0.0.0}
12:16:50,975 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTING: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleX:0.0.0}
12:16:50,975 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleX:0.0.0}
12:16:50,977 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTING: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleA:0.0.0}
12:16:50,988 INFO [FrameworkEventsPluginImpl] Bundle STARTED: Bundle{jbosgi142-bundleA:0.0.0}

Here is an update to the issue

I removed the LifecycleCallbackItem and its associated Thread

Instead I use a wrapper around the Deployers that are associated with the MainDeployer

http://anonsvn.jboss.org/repos/jbossas/projects/jboss-osgi/projects/runtime/microcontainer/trunk/src/main/java/org/jboss/osgi/plugins/deployers/bundle/OSGiDeployersWrapper.java

This still relies on implementation detail and I'd like to replace the wrapper with some kind of listener that I can associate with the MainDeployer.

 public OSGiDeployersWrapper(MainDeployer mainDeployer, OSGiBundleManager bundleManager)
 {
 if (bundleManager == null)
 throw new IllegalArgumentException("Null bundleManager");
 if (mainDeployer instanceof MainDeployerImpl == false)
 throw new IllegalStateException("Cannot instrument: " + mainDeployer);

 this.mainDeployer = mainDeployer;
 this.bundleManager = bundleManager;

 // Swap the deployers implementation
 MainDeployerImpl mainDeployerImpl = (MainDeployerImpl)mainDeployer;
 this.deployers = mainDeployerImpl.getDeployers();
 mainDeployerImpl.setDeployers(this);
 }

 public void process(List<DeploymentContext> deploy, List<DeploymentContext> undeploy)
 {
 // Delegate to the original deployers
 deployers.process(deploy, undeploy);

 // OSGi bundles resolve phase
 afterDeployersProcess(deploy, undeploy);
 }

I don't think you should wrap and replace the DeployersImpl, that is very hacky.
You should just extend it and configure your version as the impl to use.

Conceptually, there are two passes needed for bundle deployment.

Phase #1: Install bundles (reqstage == DESCRIBE )

Phase #2: Resolve & Start bundles (reqstage == INSTALLED)

Perhaps a callback for when the Phase #1 is done is needed