diff --git a/kernel.ts b/kernel.ts
index 4797742..84bcd21 100644
--- a/kernel.ts
+++ b/kernel.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-import { copyFile, rm } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { copyFile, readFile, rm, writeFile } from "node:fs/promises";
 import path from "node:path";
 import { Alpine } from "./alpine.js";
+import { execFile } from "./helpers/better-api.js";
 
 export type Kind = "lts" | "virt";
 export type Kernel = {
@@ -60,10 +61,36 @@ default=lts
 
   await alpine.writeFile(
     "/etc/mkinitfs/mkinitfs.conf",
-    `features="${features.join(" ")}"`
+    `features="${features.join(" ")}"
+disable_trigger=yes`
   );
 
-  await alpine.installPackages([`linux-${kind}`]);
+  await alpine.installPackages([`linux-${kind}`, "zstd"]);
+
+  // patch mkinitfs to use faster zstd
+  const mkinitfs = alpine.path("/sbin/mkinitfs");
+  const newMkinitfs = (await readFile(mkinitfs, "utf-8")).replace(
+    'comp="zstd -19"',
+    'comp="zstd -3"'
+  );
+  await writeFile(mkinitfs, newMkinitfs);
+
+  const kernelRelease = (
+    await readFile(
+      alpine.path(`/usr/share/kernel/${kind}/kernel.release`),
+      "utf-8"
+    )
+  ).trim();
+  // run mkinitfs manually as trigger was diabled
+  await execFile("chroot", [
+    alpine.dir,
+    "mkinitfs",
+    "-C",
+    "zstd",
+    "-o",
+    `/boot/initramfs-${kind}`,
+    kernelRelease,
+  ]);
 
   const initramfs = path.join(alpine.dir, `/boot/initramfs-${kind}`);
   const vmlinuz = path.join(alpine.dir, `/boot/vmlinuz-${kind}`);