diff --git a/src/basic/compress.c b/src/basic/compress.c
index 8cbf22005d..6747d065c6 100644
--- a/src/basic/compress.c
+++ b/src/basic/compress.c
@@ -482,9 +482,9 @@ static int compress_blob_xz(
                 return r;
 
         if (level >= 0) {
-                r = sym_lzma_lzma_preset(&opt, (uint32_t) level);
-                if (r < 0)
-                        return r;
+                /* This returns lzma_bool, and true means failure, i.e. the specified level is not supported. */
+                if (sym_lzma_lzma_preset(&opt, (uint32_t) level))
+                        return -EINVAL;
         }
 
         /* Returns < 0 if we couldn't compress the data or the