I am confused, how do you run HibernateSearchWithKarafIT against a running Karaf container? You must be modifying its configuration, right? AFAIU the test bootstraps its own container and run the test within (choosing a new directory on each run).

I never tried to manually install the Search feature file into a running Karaf instance. I guess it should work, but I am not sure into which problem you are running. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that when you run the test via the PaxExam running, unresolved bundles abort the tests. Maybe you could describe how to re-produce the problem?