diff --git a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/builder.py b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/builder.py
index 59c3028a9..30b13c89c 100644
--- a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/builder.py
+++ b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/builder.py
@@ -74,15 +74,12 @@ class mBartConfig:
     pos_encoder_type: Literal["sinusoidal", "learned"]
     """The type of position encoder."""
 
-    frontend_layernorm: bool
-    """Whether to add the layernorm in the encoder, decoder frontend."""
+    layer_norm_embed: bool
+    """Adds a layernorm to the embedding in the Transformer encoder."""
 
     dropout_p: float
     """The dropout probability in Transformer layers."""
 
-    norm_order: TransformerNormOrder
-    """The Layer Normalization order."""
-
     def update_vocabulary(self, info: VocabularyInfo) -> None:
         """Update vocabulary configuration from ``info``."""
         self.vocabulary_size, self.pad_idx = info.size, info.pad_idx
@@ -107,9 +104,8 @@ def _base() -> mBartConfig:
         num_decoder_attn_heads=16,
         ffn_inner_dim=4096,
         pos_encoder_type="learned",
-        frontend_layernorm=True,
+        layer_norm_embed=True,
         dropout_p=0.1,
-        norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.POST,
     )
 
 
@@ -190,7 +186,7 @@ def build_frontend(self, embed: Embedding) -> TransformerFrontend:
         return TransformerEmbeddingFrontend(
             embed,
             pos_encoder,
-            layer_norm=self.config.frontend_layernorm,
+            layer_norm=self.config.layer_norm_embed,
             dropout_p=self.config.dropout_p,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
@@ -204,7 +200,7 @@ def build_encoder(self) -> TransformerEncoder:
 
         return StandardTransformerEncoder(
             layers,
-            norm_order=self.config.norm_order,
+            norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.PRE,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
@@ -217,7 +213,7 @@ def build_decoder(self) -> TransformerDecoder:
 
         return StandardTransformerDecoder(
             layers,
-            norm_order=self.config.norm_order,
+            norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.PRE,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
@@ -232,7 +228,7 @@ def build_encoder_layer(self) -> TransformerEncoderLayer:
             self_attn,
             ffn,
             dropout_p=self.config.dropout_p,
-            norm_order=self.config.norm_order,
+            norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.PRE,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
@@ -250,7 +246,7 @@ def build_decoder_layer(self) -> TransformerDecoderLayer:
             encoder_decoder_attn,
             ffn,
             dropout_p=self.config.dropout_p,
-            norm_order=self.config.norm_order,
+            norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.PRE,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
@@ -272,7 +268,7 @@ def build_ffn(self) -> FeedForwardNetwork:
         return StandardFeedForwardNetwork(
             self.config.model_dim,
             self.config.ffn_inner_dim,
-            norm_order=self.config.norm_order,
+            norm_order=TransformerNormOrder.PRE,
             device=self.device,
             dtype=self.dtype,
         )
diff --git a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/loader.py b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/loader.py
index 84cb94d3b..47653c065 100644
--- a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/loader.py
+++ b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/loader.py
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@
 
 from typing import Any, Dict, Mapping, Union, final
 
-import torch
-
 from fairseq2.assets import (
     AssetCard,
     AssetDownloadManager,
@@ -46,24 +44,11 @@ def _upgrade_checkpoint(
 
         embeds = state_dict["final_proj.weight"]
 
-        # fairseq had a bug that accidentally introduced a dummy token in the
-        # embedding table of NLLB-100. We just discard it.
-        if embeds.size(0) == 256103:  # means NLLB-100
-            embeds = embeds[:-1]
-
-            state_dict["final_proj.weight"] = embeds
-
         # fairseq checkpoints have duplicate embedding weights. Ensure that we
         # use a single embedding table in fairseq2.
         state_dict["encoder_frontend.embed.weight"] = embeds
         state_dict["decoder_frontend.embed.weight"] = embeds
 
-        # The embedding positions of the control symbols in fairseq's dict do
-        # not match the SentencePiece model of the tokenizer.
-        with torch.inference_mode():
-            # (BOS, PAD, EOS, UNK) -> (PAD, UNK, BOS, EOS)
-            embeds[[0, 1, 2, 3]] = embeds[[1, 3, 0, 2]]
-
         return checkpoint
 
     @staticmethod
diff --git a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/tokenizer.py b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/tokenizer.py
index 1a6e184f1..ac6087e18 100644
--- a/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/tokenizer.py
+++ b/src/fairseq2/models/mbart/tokenizer.py
@@ -38,8 +38,8 @@ def __init__(
         :param default_lang:
             The fall-back language if no language is specified.
         """
-        # Each language is represented by a `[lang_XX]` control symbol.
-        control_symbols = [f"[{lang}_XX]" for lang in langs]
+        # Each language is represented by a `[lang]` control symbol.
+        control_symbols = [f"[{lang}]" for lang in langs]
 
         control_symbols.append("<mask>")
 
@@ -91,9 +91,9 @@ def create_encoder(
 
         if mode is None or mode == "source":
             prefix_tokens = ["<s>"]
-            suffix_tokens = ["</s>", f"[{lang}_XX]"]
+            suffix_tokens = ["</s>", f"[{lang}]"]
         elif mode == "target":
-            prefix_tokens = [f"[{lang}_XX]", "<s>"]
+            prefix_tokens = [f"[{lang}]", "<s>"]
             suffix_tokens = ["</s>"]
         else:
             raise ValueError(