Reproducible:
$sh ./configure --with-debug-level=release --with-jvm-variants=core

$ make hotspot CONF=linux-aarch64-normal-core-releas
Building target 'hotspot' in configuration 'linux-aarch64-normal-core-release'
Creating support/modules_libs/java.base/server/libjvm.so from 1 file(s)
In file included from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/memory/allocation.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/oops/array.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/memory/universe.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/code/oopRecorder.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/asm/codeBuffer.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/asm/assembler.hpp:28,
                 from /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/precompiled/precompiled.hpp:31:
/home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/runtime/globals.hpp:2765:75: error: 'pd_InlineSmallCode' was not declared in this scope; did you mean 'InlineSmallCode'?
 2765 | #define MATERIALIZE_PD_PRODUCT_FLAG(type, name, doc) type name = pd_##name;
      | ^~~
/home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/runtime/globals.hpp:1702:3: note: in expansion of macro 'MATERIALIZE_PD_PRODUCT_FLAG'
 1702 | product_pd(intx, InlineSmallCode, \
      | ^~~~~~~~~~
/home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/runtime/globals.hpp:2703:3: note: in expansion of macro 'RUNTIME_FLAGS'
 2703 | RUNTIME_FLAGS( \
      | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/src/hotspot/share/runtime/globals.cpp:51:1: note: in expansion of macro 'VM_FLAGS'
   51 | VM_FLAGS(MATERIALIZE_DEVELOPER_FLAG, \
      | ^~~~~~~~
make[3]: *** [lib/CompileJvm.gmk:155: /home/ubuntu/Devel/jdk11u-dev/build/linux-aarch64-normal-core-release/hotspot/variant-core/libjvm/objs/globals.o] Error 1
make[3]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
make[2]: *** [make/Main.gmk:272: hotspot-core-libs] Error 2

Analysis:
globals.hpp define InlineSmallCode and it requires dp_InlineSmallCode.

  product_pd(intx, InlineSmallCode, \
          "Only inline already compiled methods if their code size is " \
          "less than this") \
          range(0, max_jint) \
                                                                            \
on aarch64, its defined by in src/hotspot/cpu/aarch64/globals_aarch64.hpp

#if defined(COMPILER1) || defined(COMPILER2)
define_pd_global(intx, InlineSmallCode, 1000);
#endif

variant=core means interpreter-only. Neither COMPILER1 nor COMPILER2 is defined then, so we don't have pd_InlineSmallCode.

JDK-8235673 split InlineSmallCode and other inline-relevant flags to c1_globals.hpp and c2_globals.hpp. I think we need to backport it first to unlock variant=core.