HOWTO: Get USB working with Virtualbox 2.0 in Ubuntu 8.10
1. Install VirtualBox-2.0
Add repository to /etc/apt/sources.list and install Virtualbox-2.0
echo "deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian intrepid non-free" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/sun_vbox.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install virtualbox-2.0
2. Configure Ubuntu for VirtualBox-2.0
Add yourself to the vboxusers group
sudo gpasswd -a `whoami` vboxusers
Startup vboxdrv module on boot by appending it to /etc/modules
echo "vboxdrv" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules
3. Usb Filesystem fix
Get the vboxusers group id
cat /etc/group | grep vboxusers
vboxusers:x:128:spirit
Edit /etc/fstab to add these two lines and replace the devgid with the vboxusers group id
#usbfs for virtualbox
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devgid=128,devmode=664 0 0
4. Kernel usbcore fix
check your current kernel version
uname -r
2.6.27-7-generic
Get the sources for your kernel and fix usb/core/devio.c
sudo apt-get build-dep linux-source-2.6.27
sudo apt-get install linux-source-2.6.27 build-essential
tar -jxvf /usr/src/linux-source-2.6.27.tar.bz2
cd linux-source-2.6.27/drivers/usb/core
perl -pi.bak -e 's/16384/131072/' devio.c
make -C /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/ M=`pwd` modules
strip --strip-debug usbcore.ko
sudo install -m644 -b usbcore.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/usb/core
sudo depmod -ae
sudo update-initramfs -u
Reboot your system and check if vboxdrv is running
lsmod | grep vbox
vboxdrv 72472 0
The VirtualBox manager can be found under Applications/System Tools. You should see the USB options in the settings. You can add the devices you want.