diff --git a/arch/arm64/configs/tart_defconfig b/arch/arm64/configs/tart_defconfig
index 5ab5b3a4d..b6b326d8a 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/configs/tart_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm64/configs/tart_defconfig
@@ -2114,17 +2114,15 @@ CONFIG_FW_LOADER=y
 CONFIG_FW_LOADER_DEBUG=y
 CONFIG_FW_LOADER_PAGED_BUF=y
 CONFIG_FW_LOADER_SYSFS=y
-# Firmware loaded by Android from vendor partition at runtime, not embedded.
-# Android's ueventd serves firmware from its firmware_directories (which include
-# /vendor/firmware) via the kernel's sysfs userspace-helper fallback. This is
-# required because the kernel's built-in fw_path[] only covers /lib/firmware*
-# (absent on Android) and because built-in drivers (e.g. brcmfmac) request
-# firmware before /vendor is mounted -- the fallback's blocking wait bridges
-# that gap. Do NOT embed firmware (EXTRA_FIRMWARE) on Android.
+# Firmware loaded by Android from the vendor/odm partitions at runtime, not
+# embedded. The kernel's fw_path[] is patched (drivers/base/firmware_loader/
+# main.c) to search /vendor/firmware et al. directly, so the userspace-helper
+# fallback is intentionally left OFF: enabling it makes firmware requested
+# before those partitions are mounted (e.g. GPU/WiFi during early kernel init)
+# stall on the 60s loading_timeout instead of failing fast.
 # CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE is not set
 # CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE_DIR is not set
-CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER=y
-CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER_FALLBACK=y
+# CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER is not set
 # CONFIG_FW_LOADER_COMPRESS is not set
 # CONFIG_FW_CACHE is not set
 CONFIG_FW_UPLOAD=y
diff --git a/drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c b/drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c
index cb0912ea3..76135ab7d 100644
--- a/drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c
+++ b/drivers/base/firmware_loader/main.c
@@ -474,7 +474,19 @@ static const char * const fw_path[] = {
 	"/lib/firmware/updates/" UTS_RELEASE,
 	"/lib/firmware/updates",
 	"/lib/firmware/" UTS_RELEASE,
-	"/lib/firmware"
+	"/lib/firmware",
+	/*
+	 * Android keeps firmware on the vendor/odm partitions rather than in
+	 * /lib/firmware. Search those directly so the direct firmware loader
+	 * finds them at runtime (once the partitions are mounted) without
+	 * relying on the userspace-helper fallback. Requests issued before
+	 * these partitions are mounted (early kernel init) simply fail fast
+	 * here instead of stalling on the fallback's loading_timeout.
+	 */
+	"/vendor/firmware",
+	"/vendor/etc/firmware",
+	"/odm/firmware",
+	"/system/etc/firmware"
 };
 
 /*