unable to set default gateway at startup

This is the piece of /etc/network/interfaces file

auto usb0

iface usb0 inet static
address 192.168.7.2
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.7.1
dns-nameservers 192.168.7.1

upon reboot default gateway is not set. I have to do sudo service networking restart to set default gateway.

is this Debian ? Just wondering because I run Debian and have had similar issues. Instead, I used route add, and put it in an init script. route add etc would not work from within interfaces. I am not sure why.

yes, ubuntu is debian.

Can any body point me in r8 direction?

I made an upstart script that restarts networking service on iface usb0 up. I found that some program is resetting the usb0 interface at start up after the interface usb0 up.