diff --git a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/efi-header.S b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/efi-header.S
index c0e7a745103e22b8618618e971ba3ab41b95e5af..230030c1308538f2cef2e9f7118d6e691ab8bd59 100644
--- a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/efi-header.S
+++ b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/efi-header.S
@@ -9,16 +9,22 @@
 #include <linux/sizes.h>
 
 		.macro	__nop
-#ifdef CONFIG_EFI_STUB
-		@ This is almost but not quite a NOP, since it does clobber the
-		@ condition flags. But it is the best we can do for EFI, since
-		@ PE/COFF expects the magic string "MZ" at offset 0, while the
-		@ ARM/Linux boot protocol expects an executable instruction
-		@ there.
-		.inst	MZ_MAGIC | (0x1310 << 16)	@ tstne r0, #0x4d000
-#else
  AR_CLASS(	mov	r0, r0		)
   M_CLASS(	nop.w			)
+		.endm
+
+		.macro __initial_nops
+#ifdef CONFIG_EFI_STUB
+		@ This is a two-instruction NOP, which happens to bear the
+		@ PE/COFF signature "MZ" in the first two bytes, so the kernel
+		@ is accepted as an EFI binary. Booting via the UEFI stub
+		@ will not execute those instructions, but the ARM/Linux
+		@ boot protocol does, so we need some NOPs here.
+		.inst	MZ_MAGIC | (0xe225 << 16)	@ eor r5, r5, 0x4d000
+		eor	r5, r5, 0x4d000			@ undo previous insn
+#else
+		__nop
+		__nop
 #endif
 		.endm
 
diff --git a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/head.S b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/head.S
index b1cb1972361b84e078e6a705a0f5b93c2943c3bd..bf79f2f78d2323068ccc223ff7fe420b5ee070d2 100644
--- a/arch/arm/boot/compressed/head.S
+++ b/arch/arm/boot/compressed/head.S
@@ -203,7 +203,8 @@ start:
 		 * were patching the initial instructions of the kernel, i.e
 		 * had started to exploit this "patch area".
 		 */
-		.rept	7
+		__initial_nops
+		.rept	5
 		__nop
 		.endr
 #ifndef CONFIG_THUMB2_KERNEL