diff --git a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel-uboot.bbclass b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel-uboot.bbclass
index fa28be1715..9beccc2dff 100644
--- a/meta/classes-recipe/kernel-uboot.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes-recipe/kernel-uboot.bbclass
@@ -4,8 +4,7 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
 #
 
-# fitImage kernel compression algorithm
-FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG ?= "gzip"
+require conf/image-fitimage.conf
 
 # Kernel image type passed to mkimage (i.e. kernel kernel_noload...)
 UBOOT_MKIMAGE_KERNEL_TYPE ?= "kernel"
diff --git a/meta/conf/image-fitimage.conf b/meta/conf/image-fitimage.conf
index a06d30e494..abb17186a5 100644
--- a/meta/conf/image-fitimage.conf
+++ b/meta/conf/image-fitimage.conf
@@ -48,6 +48,9 @@ FIT_OS ?= "linux"
 # DTBs are provided separately in a FIT image.
 FIT_LINUX_BIN ?= "linux.bin"
 
+# fitImage kernel compression algorithm
+FIT_KERNEL_COMP_ALG ?= "gzip"
+
 # Additional mkimage options for FIT image creation
 FIT_MKIMAGE_EXTRA_OPTS ?= ""