diff --git a/config/patches/ruby/ruby-fast-load_26.patch b/config/patches/ruby/ruby-fast-load_26.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5d4ad87a0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/patches/ruby/ruby-fast-load_26.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+diff --git a/load.c b/load.c
+index 576464fb68..ae89f63820 100644
+--- a/load.c
++++ b/load.c
+@@ -908,6 +908,11 @@ search_required(VALUE fname, volatile VALUE *path, int safe_level, feature_func
+        if (loading) *path = rb_filesystem_str_new_cstr(loading);
+        return 'r';
+     }
++    else if ((ft = rb_feature_p(ftptr, 0, FALSE, FALSE, &loading)) == 's') {
++       if (loading) *path = rb_filesystem_str_new_cstr(loading);
++       return 's';
++    }
++
+     tmp = fname;
+     type = rb_find_file_ext_safe(&tmp, loadable_ext, safe_level);
+     switch (type) {
diff --git a/config/software/ruby.rb b/config/software/ruby.rb
index 0ee409040..25ba5e483 100644
--- a/config/software/ruby.rb
+++ b/config/software/ruby.rb
@@ -128,6 +128,14 @@
     patch source: "ruby-no-stack-protector.patch", plevel: 1, env: patch_env
   end
 
+  # accelerate requires of c-extension.
+  #
+  # this would break code which did `require "thing"` and loaded thing.so and
+  # then fiddled with the libpath and did `require "thing"` and loaded thing.rb
+  # over the top of it.  AFAIK no sane ruby code should need to do that, and the
+  # cost of this behavior in core ruby is enormous.
+  patch source: "ruby-fast-load_26.patch", plevel: 1, env: patch_env
+
   # disable libpath in mkmf across all platforms, it trolls omnibus and
   # breaks the postgresql cookbook.  i'm not sure why ruby authors decided
   # this was a good idea, but it breaks our use case hard.  AIX cannot even