diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-kernel/coreos-kernel-6.1.27.ebuild b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-kernel/coreos-kernel-6.1.27.ebuild
index 1217ba82cb..a49884384e 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-kernel/coreos-kernel-6.1.27.ebuild
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-kernel/coreos-kernel-6.1.27.ebuild
@@ -67,7 +67,6 @@ src_prepare() {
 	# Symlink to bootengine.cpio so we can stick with relative paths in .config
 	ln -sv "${SYSROOT%/}"/usr/share/bootengine/bootengine.cpio build/ || die
 	config_update 'CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="bootengine.cpio"'
-	config_update 'CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_ZSTD=y'
 
 	# include all intel and amd microcode files, avoiding the signatures
 	local fw_dir="${SYSROOT%/}/lib/firmware"
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/coreos-modules-6.1.27.ebuild b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/coreos-modules-6.1.27.ebuild
index 73f19c25fb..1741f4238e 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/coreos-modules-6.1.27.ebuild
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/coreos-modules-6.1.27.ebuild
@@ -18,10 +18,12 @@ src_prepare() {
 		elog "Building using config ${archconfig} and ${commonconfig}"
 		cat "${archconfig}" "${commonconfig}" >> build/.config || die
 	fi
+	cpio -ov </dev/null >build/bootengine.cpio
 
 	# Check that an old pre-ebuild-split config didn't leak in.
 	grep -q "^CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE=" build/.config && \
 		die "CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE must be removed from kernel config"
+	config_update 'CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE="bootengine.cpio"'
 }
 
 src_compile() {
diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/commonconfig-6.1 b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/commonconfig-6.1
index b385d7147f..3b822fc8a8 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/commonconfig-6.1
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/sys-kernel/coreos-modules/files/commonconfig-6.1
@@ -281,6 +281,7 @@ CONFIG_INFINIBAND_OCRDMA=m
 CONFIG_INFINIBAND_SRP=m
 CONFIG_INFINIBAND_USER_MAD=m
 CONFIG_INIT_STACK_NONE=y
+CONFIG_INITRAMFS_COMPRESSION_ZSTD=y
 CONFIG_INPUT_EVDEV=m
 CONFIG_INPUT_MISC=y
 CONFIG_INPUT_MOUSEDEV=m