never mind... posted this in the wrong, but related thread.
i got octoprint to work and i found an old webcam to try out, followed the steps above to get my system to finally start showing /dev/video1 and /dev/video0 (none were showing before and none show when i unplug the webcam). still can't get video.
my cam is a now ancient Microsoft hd 3000. it has a little blue light that goes on when the camera is working, and the light is always off. i can't get unraid to turn it on, hence no feed. works great when i hook it up to my winbox.