My error message is:
Configuring network interfaces...Don't seem to be have all the variables for eth1
Failed to bring up eth1

# dmesg | grep eth
eth0: VIA Networking Velocity Family Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
eth0: Ethernet Address: 00:50:8D:6B:E7:79
udev: renamed network interface eth0 to eth1

My /etc/network/interfaces:
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet static
        address 172.16.78.6
        network 255.255.255.240
        gateway 172.16.78.1