i managed to get further with your help. i am able to deploy this overlay but the system hangs on the starting kernel line and reboots 3 times and switches back to the rollback overlay.
i had to comment the line 59 power-domains = <&pd IMX_SC_R_BOARD_R1>; to get it to built. uncommenting this line gives a syntax error.
U-Boot 2020.04-5.1.0+git.0a26a04408ca (Jan 01 1970 - 00:00:00 +0000)
CPU: NXP i.MX8QM RevB A53 at 1200 MHz
DRAM: 4 GiB
MMC: FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1, FSL_SDHC: 2
Loading Environment from MMC... OK
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Model: Toradex Apalis iMX8 QuadMax 4GB Wi-Fi / BT IT V1.1B, Serial# 06738425
BuildInfo:
- SCFW 732e719a, SECO-FW 376e3c15, IMX-MKIMAGE 6745ccdc, ATF
- U-Boot 2020.04-5.1.0+git.0a26a04408ca
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0(part 0) is current device
flash target is MMC:0
Net: eth0: ethernet@5b040000
Fastboot: Normal
Saving Environment to MMC... Writing to MMC(0)... OK
Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0(part 0) is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
Found U-Boot script /boot.scr
1007 bytes read in 11 ms (88.9 KiB/s)
## Executing script at 83100000
4394 bytes read in 23 ms (186.5 KiB/s)
162801 bytes read in 36 ms (4.3 MiB/s)
35 bytes read in 27 ms (1000 Bytes/s)
Applying Overlay: apalis-imx8_eth2.dtbo
1357 bytes read in 35 ms (37.1 KiB/s)
12136124 bytes read in 296 ms (39.1 MiB/s)
Uncompressed size: 30505472 = 0x1D17A00
9168678 bytes read in 228 ms (38.4 MiB/s)
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 83000000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x83000000
Loading Ramdisk to fcd90000, end fd64e726 ... OK
Using Device Tree in place at 0000000083000000, end 000000008304afff
Starting kernel ...