diff --git a/package/boot/kexec-tools/Config.in b/package/boot/kexec-tools/Config.in
index 60c819d798740a96265ecd6eeda6ff4c779f5d77..2642171bb087423b05af65472c9975108bcd2b41 100644
--- a/package/boot/kexec-tools/Config.in
+++ b/package/boot/kexec-tools/Config.in
@@ -18,4 +18,9 @@ config KEXEC_TOOLS_kdump
 	help
 	  Include the kdump utility.
 
+config KEXEC_ZLIB
+	bool
+	prompt "zlib support"
+	default y
+
 endmenu
diff --git a/package/boot/kexec-tools/Makefile b/package/boot/kexec-tools/Makefile
index fa4f4d8efc64ab1e9fff5781985b012a75c7c935..541dca275ad09d45ddb83f561cde74a590bfb823 100644
--- a/package/boot/kexec-tools/Makefile
+++ b/package/boot/kexec-tools/Makefile
@@ -17,12 +17,14 @@ PKG_MD5SUM:=b3ced2097ce3981abba38ceedc84f939
 
 PKG_FIXUP:=autoreconf
 
+PKG_CONFIG_DEPENDS := CONFIG_KEXEC_ZLIB
+
 include $(INCLUDE_DIR)/package.mk
 
 define Package/kexec-tools
   SECTION:=utils
   CATEGORY:=Utilities
-  DEPENDS:=@armeb||@arm||@i386||@powerpc64||@mipsel||@mips +zlib
+  DEPENDS:=@armeb||@arm||@i386||@powerpc64||@mipsel||@mips +KEXEC_ZLIB:zlib
   TITLE:=Kernel boots kernel
   URL:=http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/horms/kexec-tools/
   MAINTAINER:=Florian Fainelli <florian@openwrt.org>
@@ -51,7 +53,8 @@ CONFIGURE_ARGS = \
 		--bindir=/usr/bin \
 		--sbindir=/usr/sbin \
 		--libexecdir=/usr/lib \
-		--sysconfdir=/etc
+		--sysconfdir=/etc \
+		$(if $(CONFIG_KEXEC_ZLIB),--with,--without)-zlib
 
 CONFIGURE_VARS += \
 	BUILD_CC="$(HOSTCC)" \