As far as it detecting the laptop webcam, it will probably be /dev/video1 (as opposed to /dev/video0) You can usually double check that with "dmesg | grep video" (or "sudo dmesg | grep video" when you plug it in.)
Another good program for testing if it's working is guvcview.
Note that you might be able to use the gige driver as is without the firmware update. (I've since become aware of that using avaris, but on another USB camera it hasn't worked, and I haven't yet tried it on the NexImage 5.)