So, I was reading a guide and I have seen this partition scheme suggested many times and I have some questions:
/
/swap
/home
/usr
/var
/tmp

With 40 gigs of linux space how much should be allocated to each? In general, what types of things should go in each? Is this a good scheme? I'm going to be installing debian tomorrow so I'm just trying to get some ideas.

It totally depends on how you are going to use your system. Like desktop or server......
Personally I use a /boot aswell. /tmp can be very handy but again it depends on what you are planning to do.
With 40 gigs I would at least make quite some room in /home and /usr/. /home is where stuff like your documents and downloads are gonna go so you don't want to run out of space there. /usr is where you software will mainly be so if you plan on installing quite some programs make enough room. /swap used to be set to about 2 times your ram, but I read that going over 1 gig is useless. /var can be left out if not a server.
For a first install don't worry too much. Just google a bit, there is loads of info on this.

here is my suggestion.

/boot = 100mb
/swap = 2xRAM
/ = 6-10gb (depends on the distro and how many apps you plan to install)
/home = rest of drive

Things to remember:
normally under /var = websites, email inbox
under /usr = i have 2.5gb (i have slackware 10)

So it really depends on what you are going to use the server for, if you are going to have huge websites, or a lot of email accounts then you should probably make a seperate partition, or better yet, a seperate drive array for /var

Yes, I'm going to be using the computer as my main computer, i.e. work, play, etc, and not as a server.

/boot = 100mb
/swap = 2xRAM
/ = rest of the drive

Here is my suggestion (with a little rational behind the setup):

/boot --100MB. Having /boot on a seperate drive helps in system recovery situations.

/swap --2X RAM or 500MB whichever is smaller, i.e., there is no reason to have a lot of swap space unless you really use your system in relatively extreme ways. The old 2X RAM rule is just that--an old rule. Now that most modern machines have plenty of RAM, you don't need swap very often at all. You certainly don't need GBs of it as some like to do--that is just a waste of hard drive space.

/tmp --700MB I like to have /tmp on a separate partition so that I can set it to noexec in the fstab. /tmp has universal rw permissions by default, so for security reasons I like to take away the exec permissions. You'll need exec permissions to do some stuff (like instal Nvidia drivers), but it is easy to set it back after a system-wide change. But keeping /tmp set to no exec in fstab prevent malicious code from being written and then executed (although it can still be written).

/ --7-10GB How much software do you play with?

/home --rest of drive. Having /home on a seperate partition allows you to reinstall the OS or even switch distros without too much trouble--very nice.

I don't usually set /var and /usr to seperate partitions for desktops.

Hi,

I just bought a new hard disk and among the new partitions I wanted to dedicate one to /tmp, so I initialized it and set it up in /etc/fstab.

When I rebooted the computer, it kept switching back and forth between the X-windows and the text modes.

I was able to comment the line in fstab thanks to the linux rescue option of the distribution DVD.

What is the trick to move /tmp to a new, separate partition ?