diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
index c90dbd73f2f..777a91241bb 100644
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/common-config.nix
@@ -680,7 +680,14 @@ let
       DEBUG_MEMORY_INIT     = option yes;
     });
 
-    misc = {
+    misc = let
+      # Use zstd for kernel compression if 64-bit and newer than 5.9, otherwise xz.
+      # i686 issues: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/117961#issuecomment-812106375
+      useZstd = stdenv.buildPlatform.is64bit && versionAtLeast version "5.9";
+    in {
+      KERNEL_XZ            = mkIf (!useZstd) yes;
+      KERNEL_ZSTD          = mkIf useZstd yes;
+
       HID_BATTERY_STRENGTH = yes;
       # enabled by default in x86_64 but not arm64, so we do that here
       HIDRAW               = yes;
@@ -696,10 +703,6 @@ let
       MODULE_COMPRESS    = yes;
       MODULE_COMPRESS_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
 
       AIO                = yes;  # POSIX asynchronous I/O