diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
index 47e49dbe01d..0fb83014662 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
@@ -654,7 +654,10 @@ let
 
       MODULE_COMPRESS    = yes;
       MODULE_COMPRESS_XZ = yes;
-      KERNEL_XZ          = yes;
+
+      # use zstd for kernel compression if newer than 5.9, else xz.
+      KERNEL_XZ          = whenOlder "5.9" yes;
+      KERNEL_ZSTD        = whenAtLeast "5.9" yes;
 
       SYSVIPC            = yes;  # System-V IPC