confused about copying a partition

[Chris Green]

On Thu, Feb 25, 2021 at 12:28:40PM -0800, Dave Stevens wrote:
> I have a working spinning disk install of ubuntu, configured to do
> various useful things. I'd like to move that functionality to a usb
> stick. If it worked I'd be able to put together a system that would
> boot identically to the current one, but cheaper, less power needed,
> various advantages.
> 
> It seems as if I might be able to copy the existing partition (29GB) to
> the target usb (32GB) and have a working bootable USB setup ready to
> go. The purpose of the exercise is to gather air pollution measurements.
> 
> I can't seem to find what I need to do this, the usual assumption is
> that I want to install a new ubuntu instance, but I don't and in any
> case know how to do this already.
> 
> So is there a source of directions about how to clone the whole source 
> partition to the destination USB stick.
> 
> Suggestions appreciated,
> 
Stick both drives in another computer and use dd.

However is the target machine to run off the USB stick similar enough
to the source machine for this to work?  Isn't it possible that
differences in the BIOS etc. will require changes to /boot and things
like that?

-- 
Chris Green