diff --git a/arch/arm/cpu/start-pbl.c b/arch/arm/cpu/start-pbl.c
index 0599c57..a825e9f 100644
--- a/arch/arm/cpu/start-pbl.c
+++ b/arch/arm/cpu/start-pbl.c
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@
 #include <asm/pgtable.h>
 #include <asm/cache.h>
 
-#include "mmu.h"
+#include "mmu-early.h"
 
 unsigned long free_mem_ptr;
 unsigned long free_mem_end_ptr;
@@ -83,6 +83,12 @@
 
 	setup_c();
 
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MMU_EARLY)) {
+		endmem &= ~0x3fff;
+		endmem -= SZ_16K; /* ttb */
+		mmu_early_enable(membase, memsize, endmem);
+	}
+
 	endmem -= SZ_128K; /* early malloc */
 	free_mem_ptr = endmem;
 	free_mem_end_ptr = free_mem_ptr + SZ_128K;
diff --git a/arch/arm/cpu/start.c b/arch/arm/cpu/start.c
index a621161..d90b244 100644
--- a/arch/arm/cpu/start.c
+++ b/arch/arm/cpu/start.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 
 #include <common.h>
 #include <init.h>
+#include <sizes.h>
 #include <asm/barebox-arm.h>
 #include <asm/barebox-arm-head.h>
 #include <asm-generic/memory_layout.h>
@@ -26,6 +27,8 @@
 #include <asm/cache.h>
 #include <memory.h>
 
+#include "mmu-early.h"
+
 unsigned long arm_stack_top;
 
 static noinline __noreturn void __start(uint32_t membase, uint32_t memsize,
@@ -38,6 +41,15 @@
 	arm_stack_top = endmem;
 	endmem -= STACK_SIZE; /* Stack */
 
+	if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MMU_EARLY)) {
+
+		endmem &= ~0x3fff;
+		endmem -= SZ_16K; /* ttb */
+
+		if (!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_PBL_IMAGE))
+			mmu_early_enable(membase, memsize, endmem);
+	}
+
 	start_barebox();
 }
 
diff --git a/common/Kconfig b/common/Kconfig
index 595e91f..3f6c11e 100644
--- a/common/Kconfig
+++ b/common/Kconfig
@@ -114,6 +114,15 @@
 	  to enable the data cache which depends on the MMU. See Documentation/mmu.txt
 	  for further information.
 
+config MMU_EARLY
+	bool "Enable MMU early"
+	depends on ARM
+	depends on MMU
+	default y
+	help
+	  This enables the MMU during early startup. This speeds up things during startup
+	  of barebox, but may lead to harder to debug code. If unsure say yes here.
+
 config HAVE_CONFIGURABLE_TEXT_BASE
 	bool