Virtualbox is a great software for virtualization, a feature supported is the ability to recognize a USB device on the host computer for later use in the guest OS. It's just that by default VirtualBox on Linux does not directly install this feature. Granted you will not have problems with the USB when using VirtualBox version of Windows. But in Linux, you must install the extension pack in accordance with the version of VirtualBox you use.
I am using Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid, and in this way it should apply universally to all supported versions of Linux VirtualBox. I use VirtualBox version is version 4.0 CloseSource that are downloaded directly from here. This method does not know if it will work for virtualbox-ose version (Open Source Edition) - to my knowledge, there is no version of the Open Source support for USB.
1. Download the appropriate version of the first extension pack virtualbox. You can see it here.
2. Make sure you are in a group username vboxusers, the easiest way is to open a terminal and type:
useradd -G vboxusers username_you
3. Install the extension pack, how to open the VirtualBox Manager, click the File menu - Preferences, go to the Extension tab, and enter the extension pack file that you have downloaded.
4. IMPORTANT! Add your username to the group vboxusers: (use terminal only)
sudo adduser username_anda vboxusers
5. restart the computer
6. Open VirtualBox manager, right-click the virtual OS that you want to change, click Settings
7. Make sure the USB device is connected to the host, and add a USB device to a virtual OS.
8. When you run a virtual OS, the USB device will be instantly recognizable. Prepare the USB device driver for the guest OS if necessary.