diff --git a/package/squashfs/Config.in b/package/squashfs/Config.in
index c16ebbf27f..f5ae5d9bec 100644
--- a/package/squashfs/Config.in
+++ b/package/squashfs/Config.in
@@ -2,7 +2,13 @@ config BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS
 	bool "squashfs"
 	depends on BR2_TOOLCHAIN_HAS_THREADS
 	depends on BR2_USE_MMU # fork()
-	select BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_GZIP if !(BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_LZMA || BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_LZO)
+	# ensure at least on compression backend (defaults to gzip)
+	select BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_GZIP if !( \
+	       BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_LZ4 || \
+	       BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_LZMA || \
+	       BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_LZO || \
+	       BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_XZ || \
+	       BR2_PACKAGE_SQUASHFS_ZSTD)
 	help
 	  Tools to generate SquashFS filesystems.