diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-lqx.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-lqx.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 0d56108f2f23..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-lqx.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,26 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, fetchFromGitHub, buildLinux, linux_zen, ... } @ args:
-
-let
-  version = "5.15.16";
-  suffix = "lqx2";
-in
-
-buildLinux (args // {
-  modDirVersion = "${version}-${suffix}";
-  inherit version;
-  isZen = true;
-
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner = "zen-kernel";
-    repo = "zen-kernel";
-    rev = "v${version}-${suffix}";
-    sha256 = "sha256-kdT/hiASZ72pkS0Igta0KT0GWTgDRjxBnd5CQ0eonfg=";
-  };
-
-  extraMeta = {
-    branch = "5.14/master";
-    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ atemu ];
-    description = linux_zen.meta.description + " (Same as linux_zen but less aggressive release schedule)";
-  };
-
-} // (args.argsOverride or { }))
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-zen.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-zen.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 504cb1267429..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-zen.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, fetchFromGitHub, buildLinux, ... } @ args:
-
-let
-  # having the full version string here makes it easier to update
-  modDirVersion = "5.18.5-zen1";
-  parts = lib.splitString "-" modDirVersion;
-  version = lib.elemAt parts 0;
-  suffix = lib.elemAt parts 1;
-
-  numbers = lib.splitString "." version;
-  branch = "${lib.elemAt numbers 0}.${lib.elemAt numbers 1}";
-  rev = if ((lib.elemAt numbers 2) == "0") then "v${branch}-${suffix}" else "v${modDirVersion}";
-in
-
-buildLinux (args // {
-  inherit version modDirVersion;
-  isZen = true;
-
-  src = fetchFromGitHub {
-    owner = "zen-kernel";
-    repo = "zen-kernel";
-    inherit rev;
-    sha256 = "sha256-q6a8Wyzs6GNQ39mV+q/9N6yo/kXS9ZH+QTfGka42gk4=";
-  };
-
-  structuredExtraConfig = with lib.kernel; {
-    ZEN_INTERACTIVE = yes;
-    # TODO: Remove once #175433 reaches master
-    # https://nixpk.gs/pr-tracker.html?pr=175433
-    WERROR = no;
-  };
-
-  extraMeta = {
-    inherit branch;
-    maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ atemu andresilva ];
-    description = "Built using the best configuration and kernel sources for desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads.";
-  };
-
-} // (args.argsOverride or { }))
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.py b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..204a39ad3a9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.py
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env nix-shell
+#! nix-shell -i python3 -p python3 nix nix-prefetch-git
+
+import fileinput
+import json
+import os
+import sys
+import re
+import subprocess
+
+from datetime import datetime
+from urllib.request import urlopen, Request
+
+
+def panic(exc):
+    raise Exception(exc)
+
+
+DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+HEADERS = {'Accept': 'application/vnd.github.v3+json'}
+
+
+def github_api_request(endpoint):
+    base_url = 'https://api.github.com/'
+    request = Request(base_url + endpoint, headers=HEADERS)
+    with urlopen(request) as http_response:
+        return json.loads(http_response.read().decode('utf-8'))
+
+
+def get_commit_date(repo, sha):
+    url = f'https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}/commits/{sha}'
+    request = Request(url, headers=HEADERS)
+    with urlopen(request) as http_response:
+        commit = json.loads(http_response.read().decode())
+        date = commit['commit']['committer']['date'].rstrip('Z')
+        date = datetime.fromisoformat(date).date().isoformat()
+        return 'unstable-' + date
+
+
+def nix_prefetch_git(url, rev):
+    """Prefetches the requested Git revision (incl. submodules) of the given repository URL."""
+    print(f'nix-prefetch-git {url} {rev}')
+    out = subprocess.check_output([
+        'nix-prefetch-git', '--quiet',
+        '--url', url,
+        '--rev', rev,
+        '--fetch-submodules'])
+    return json.loads(out)['sha256']
+
+
+def nix_prefetch_url(url, unpack=False):
+    """Prefetches the content of the given URL."""
+    print(f'nix-prefetch-url {url}')
+    options = ['--type', 'sha256']
+    if unpack:
+        options += ['--unpack']
+    out = subprocess.check_output(['nix-prefetch-url'] + options + [url])
+    return out.decode('utf-8').rstrip()
+
+
+def update_file(relpath, variant, version, suffix, sha256):
+    file_path = os.path.join(DIR, relpath)
+    with fileinput.FileInput(file_path, inplace=True) as f:
+        for line in f:
+            result = line
+            result = re.sub(
+                fr'^    version = ".+"; #{variant}',
+                f'    version = "{version}"; #{variant}',
+                result)
+            result = re.sub(
+                fr'^    suffix = ".+"; #{variant}',
+                f'    suffix = "{suffix}"; #{variant}',
+                result)
+            result = re.sub(
+                fr'^    sha256 = ".+"; #{variant}',
+                f'    sha256 = "{sha256}"; #{variant}',
+                result)
+            print(result, end='')
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    if len(sys.argv) == 1:
+        panic("Update variant expected")
+    variant = sys.argv[1]
+    if variant not in ("zen", "lqx"):
+        panic(f"Unexepected variant instead of 'zen' or 'lqx': {sys.argv[1]}")
+    pattern = re.compile(fr"v(\d+\.\d+\.?\d*)-({variant}\d+)")
+    zen_tags = github_api_request('repos/zen-kernel/zen-kernel/releases')
+    for tag in zen_tags:
+        zen_match = pattern.match(tag['tag_name'])
+        if zen_match:
+            zen_tag = zen_match.group(0)
+            zen_version = zen_match.group(1)
+            zen_suffix = zen_match.group(2)
+            break
+    zen_hash = nix_prefetch_git('https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel.git', zen_tag)
+    update_file('zen-kernels.nix', variant, zen_version, zen_suffix, zen_hash)
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.sh b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index 0984031b2814..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/update-zen.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,23 +0,0 @@
-#! /usr/bin/env nix-shell
-#! nix-shell -I nixpkgs=../../../.. -i bash -p nix-prefetch git gnused gnugrep nix curl
-set -euo pipefail -x
-
-nixpkgs="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
-old=$(nix-instantiate --eval -A linuxPackages_zen.kernel.modDirVersion "$nixpkgs")
-old="${old%\"}"
-old="${old#\"}"
-new=$(curl https://github.com/zen-kernel/zen-kernel/releases.atom | grep -m1 -o -E '[0-9.]+-zen[0-9]+')
-# add ".0" patch to modDirVersion when minor only
-new=$(echo "$new" | sed -E 's/^([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)-(\w+)$/\1.\2.0-\3/')
-if [[ "$new" == "$old" ]]; then
-    echo "already up-to-date"
-    exit 0
-fi
-
-path="$nixpkgs/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-zen.nix"
-
-sed -i -e "s!modDirVersion = \".*\"!modDirVersion = \"${new}\"!" "$path"
-checksum=$(nix-prefetch "(import ${nixpkgs} {}).linuxPackages_zen.kernel")
-sed -i -e "s!sha256 = \".*\"!sha256 = \"${checksum}\"!" "$path"
-
-git commit -m "linuxKernel.kernels.linux_zen: ${old} -> ${new}" $path
diff --git a/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/zen-kernels.nix b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/zen-kernels.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..8eee9e2ea14c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/os-specific/linux/kernel/zen-kernels.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+{ lib, fetchFromGitHub, buildLinux, ... } @ args:
+
+let
+  # comments with variant added for update script
+  # ./update-zen.py zen
+  zenVariant = {
+    version = "5.18.7"; #zen
+    suffix = "zen1"; #zen
+    sha256 = "1dxiwrbf15njqcq2kxbsg22hllpcvdwjhdf0gs3xx0xyjbwjyd26"; #zen
+    isLqx = false;
+  };
+  # ./update-zen.py lqx
+  lqxVariant = {
+    version = "5.18.7"; #lqx
+    suffix = "lqx1"; #lqx
+    sha256 = "0gyp4x8rlsg5bjr9c8qq0mk3wckyg0navc1sripkj8hrl51vm28c"; #lqx
+    isLqx = true;
+  };
+  zenKernelsFor = { version, suffix, sha256, isLqx }: buildLinux (args // {
+    inherit version;
+    modDirVersion = "${lib.concatStringsSep "." (lib.take 3 (lib.splitVersion version ++ [ "0" "0" ]))}-${suffix}";
+    isZen = true;
+
+    src = fetchFromGitHub {
+      owner = "zen-kernel";
+      repo = "zen-kernel";
+      rev = "v${version}-${suffix}";
+      inherit sha256;
+    };
+
+    passthru.updateScript = [ ./update-zen.py (if isLqx then "lqx" else "zen") ];
+
+    extraMeta = {
+      branch = lib.versions.majorMinor version + "/master";
+      maintainers = with lib.maintainers; [ atemu andresilva psydvl ];
+      description = "Built using the best configuration and kernel sources for desktop, multimedia, and gaming workloads." +
+        lib.optionalString isLqx " (Same as linux_zen but less aggressive release schedule)";
+    };
+
+  } // (args.argsOverride or { }));
+in
+{
+  zen = zenKernelsFor zenVariant;
+  lqx = zenKernelsFor lqxVariant;
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/linux-kernels.nix b/pkgs/top-level/linux-kernels.nix
index 0e61796ef281..0d2d7cc835c0 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/linux-kernels.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/linux-kernels.nix
@@ -196,19 +196,23 @@ in {
       ];
     };
 
-    linux_zen = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-zen.nix {
-      kernelPatches = [
-        kernelPatches.bridge_stp_helper
-        kernelPatches.request_key_helper
-      ];
-    };
+    # Using zenKernels like this due lqx&zen came from one source, but may have different base kernel version
+    # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/161773#discussion_r820134708
+    zenKernels = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/kernel/zen-kernels.nix;
 
-    linux_lqx = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/kernel/linux-lqx.nix {
+    linux_zen = (zenKernels {
       kernelPatches = [
         kernelPatches.bridge_stp_helper
         kernelPatches.request_key_helper
       ];
-    };
+    }).zen;
+
+    linux_lqx = (zenKernels {
+      kernelPatches = [
+        kernelPatches.bridge_stp_helper
+        kernelPatches.request_key_helper
+      ];
+    }).lqx;
 
     # This contains both the STABLE and EDGE variants of the XanMod kernel
     xanmodKernels = callPackage ../os-specific/linux/kernel/xanmod-kernels.nix;