I specifically needed hd44780 and thought I needed lis, so I spent a bit of time on getting configure to recognize libusb and libftdi.

This writeup is how I got the nMedia PRO-LCD ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811996003&cm_re=nmedia_pro-lcd-_-11-996-003-_-Product ) to work under LCDd on the latest OpenIndiana build (148).

configure needs pkg-config:

pkg install gettext

wget the latest version of libftdi (I know a version of libftdi is installed by default, but compiling sets up libftdi.pc etc):

wget ‘http://www.intra2net.com/en/developer/libftdi/download/libftdi-0.18.tar.gz’
tar zxvf libftdi-0.18.tar.gz
cd libftdi-0.18
./configure
make
make install

It is probably possible to just create libftdi.pc in PKG_CONFIG_PATH ( for me, /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig ), but I did not do it that way.
I did, however, do that for libusb.pc:

### libusb.pc startprefix=/usr
exec_prefix=${prefix}
libdir=${exec_prefix}/lib/64
includedir=${prefix}/include

Name: libusb
Description: Library to control the USB controller
Requires:Version: 1.0
Libs: -L${libdir}
Cflags: -I${includedir}
### libusb.pc end

It may not be correct, but it worked to compile lcdproc.  Looking back, I probably did not need libusb/libftdi at all since I used /dev/term/0 with hd44780 mplay driver.
Get the latest version of lcdproc:

wget “http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/lcdproc/lcdproc/0.5.4/lcdproc-0.5.4-pre1.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Flcdproc.org%2Fdownload.php3\&ts=1293936448\&use_mirror=iweb”
tar zxvf lcdproc-0.5.4-pre1.tar.gz
cd lcdproc-0.5.4-pre1

Solaris uses —export-dynamic instead of -rdynamic

cd server
mv Makefile.am Makefile.am.orig
cat Makefile.am.orig | sed s/rdynamic/-export-dynamic/ > Makefile.am
mv Makefile.in Makefile.in.orig
cat Makefile.in.orig | sed s/rdynamic/-export-dynamic/ > Makefile.in
cd ..

Now on to compiling LCDd (again, don’t need lis for PRO-LCD).

./configure —enable-drivers=hd44780
make
make install

Now for configuration.
In /etc/LCDd.conf, to get LCDd to work with the nMedia PRO-LCD:

## LCDd.conf start
[server]
DriverPath=/usr/local/lib/lcdproc/

# hd44780, NOT lis, works with PRO-LCD
Driver=hd44780
Bind=127.0.0.1
Port=13666
User=nobody
ReportToSyslog=yes

## Hitachi HD44780 driver ##
[hd44780]
# Select what type of connection. See documentation for types.
ConnectionType=mplay

# Since libftdi creates it, we may as well use it…
Device=/dev/term/0

# 38400 seemed to work with the PRO-LCD
Speed=38400

# Figured I should probably include this
Size=20x2

#  Don’t know if this makes a difference
CharMap=hd44780_default

# Don’t know if this makes a difference, too
DelayBus=true

## LCDd.conf end

Start it up:

/usr/local/sbin/LCDd -c /etc/LCDd.conf

You should get the “Welcome to LCDproc!” message on the PRO-LCD if you left it in the config, otherwise you’ll get the LCDd status screen.

And that’s basically it - apologies if this is a little rough - This basically covers “How to get LCDd to run on OpenSolaris/OpenIndiana/Solaris 11 Express” as well as “A hack to get hd44780 to do what lis is supposed to do for lis.”

The hd44780/lis hack should probably also work for any LIS compatible VFD, I am guessing (but have not tested).