diff --git a/poky/meta/classes/kernel-uboot.bbclass b/poky/meta/classes/kernel-uboot.bbclass
index 87f0265..b1e7ac0 100644
--- a/poky/meta/classes/kernel-uboot.bbclass
+++ b/poky/meta/classes/kernel-uboot.bbclass
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+# fitImage kernel compression algorithm
+FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG ?= "gzip"
+FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG_EXTENSION ?= ".gz"
+
 uboot_prep_kimage() {
 	if [ -e arch/${ARCH}/boot/compressed/vmlinux ]; then
 		vmlinux_path="arch/${ARCH}/boot/compressed/vmlinux"
@@ -11,8 +15,8 @@
 		linux_comp="none"
 	else
 		vmlinux_path="vmlinux"
-		linux_suffix=".gz"
-		linux_comp="gzip"
+		linux_suffix="${FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG_EXTENSION}"
+		linux_comp="${FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG}"
 	fi
 
 	[ -n "${vmlinux_path}" ] && ${OBJCOPY} -O binary -R .note -R .comment -S "${vmlinux_path}" linux.bin