Just one additional bit of info regarding the purpose of vc4-fkms-v3d
being in Core 18 in the first place:

I'm not 100% sure of the reason it was there, but it's been since before
Core 18, so I was loathe to remove something that users might be relying
upon. As to what the overlay actually does: it implements "fake" KMS
(hence the fkms in the name) by having the ARM core request (via the
mailbox) that the GPU carry out the required operations. This is in
contrast to the "proper" KMS overlay (vc4-kms-v3d) which isn't currently
recommended because it leaves the ARM in full control of the GPU
registers, which breaks certain other bits of the GPU firmware (notably
the camera module cannot operate with the latter overlay at this time).

The FKMS overlay is likely used by several graphical applications (e.g.
it's near impossible to run a desktop on the Pi without it ... not that
that's something anyone would sensibly try on a 3A+) so I was left with
a choice of "which thing do you want to break today?":

1) Leave the fkms overlay in, breaking boot for the 3A+ but with a
relatively simple workaround.

2) Remove the fkms overlay, permitting boot on all models but likely
breaking several existing graphical applications on Core, again with a
relatively simple workaround (add the overlay line back in).

My judgment was that the 3A+ is quite a rare beast with relatively
esoteric use-cases (it's primarily used either where someone needs the
reduced weight, e.g. drones, or where someone wants the absolute lowest
cost possible although that niche is arguably better served by the
compute modules which come with their own storage), so the former option
would likely break less people's experiences out of the box.

@pwlars - interesting observation on the pi2. I can't say I'd seriously
tested Core on there. I wonder if the CMA allocation of the overlay can
be adjusted and whether that would make a difference. I had previously
tried removing the ",cma-256" parameter and noted it made no difference,
but I don't recall testing alternatives (e.g. "cma-64"?)

@xnox - minor correction to your query in comment 8: the fkms overlay is
not included on classic. It was never included on there previously, so I
couldn't justify breaking boot on the 3A+ just for the sake of bringing
the two platforms into line (much as I might desire such harmony for
ease of maintenance!). Hence, the only combination where one needed to
fiddle with things to get it booting was Core 18 on the 3A+.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1878432

Title:
  rpi3a+ does not boot with core20

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