diff --git a/src/libostree/ostree-kernel-args.c b/src/libostree/ostree-kernel-args.c
index 9a9e0be248..054dcdbdbc 100644
--- a/src/libostree/ostree-kernel-args.c
+++ b/src/libostree/ostree-kernel-args.c
@@ -163,6 +163,44 @@ strcmp0_equal (gconstpointer v1, gconstpointer v2)
   return g_strcmp0 (v1, v2) == 0;
 }
 
+/* Split string with whitespace, but keep quotes.
+   For example, "test=\"1 2\"" will be saved in hash table as: test="1 2".
+ */
+static char **
+split_whitespace (const char *str)
+{
+  gboolean quoted = FALSE;
+  g_return_val_if_fail (str != NULL, NULL);
+
+  GPtrArray *strv = g_ptr_array_new ();
+
+  guint len = strlen (str);
+  guint start;
+  // Skip first whitespaces
+  for (start = 0; start < len && str[start] == ' '; start++)
+    {
+    }
+  for (guint i = start; str[i] != '\0'; i++)
+    {
+      if (str[i] == ' ' && !quoted)
+        {
+          g_ptr_array_add (strv, g_strndup (str + start, i - start));
+          start = i + 1;
+        }
+      if (str[i] == '"')
+        {
+          quoted = !quoted;
+        }
+      if (i == (len - 1))
+        {
+          if (!quoted)
+            g_ptr_array_add (strv, g_strndup (str + start, len - start));
+        }
+    }
+  g_ptr_array_add (strv, NULL);
+  return (char **)g_ptr_array_free (strv, FALSE);
+}
+
 /**
  * ostree_kernel_args_new: (skip)
  *
@@ -395,8 +433,10 @@ ostree_kernel_args_delete (OstreeKernelArgs *kargs, const char *arg, GError **er
     {
       /* but if a specific val was passed, check that it's the same */
       OstreeKernelArgsEntry *e = entries->pdata[0];
-      if (val && !strcmp0_equal (val, _ostree_kernel_args_entry_get_value (e)))
-        return glnx_throw (error, "No karg '%s=%s' found", key, val);
+      g_autofree char *existing_value = _ostree_kernel_args_entry_get_value (e);
+      if (val && !strcmp0_equal (val, existing_value))
+        return glnx_throw (error, "No karg '%s=%s' found, acutal value is '%s'", key, val,
+                           existing_value);
       return ostree_kernel_args_delete_key_entry (kargs, key, error);
     }
 
@@ -644,7 +684,7 @@ ostree_kernel_args_parse_append (OstreeKernelArgs *kargs, const char *options)
   if (!options)
     return;
 
-  args = g_strsplit (options, " ", -1);
+  args = split_whitespace (options);
   for (iter = args; *iter; iter++)
     {
       char *arg = *iter;
diff --git a/tests/test-admin-deploy-karg.sh b/tests/test-admin-deploy-karg.sh
index 39fcdf3614..99a4941bd5 100755
--- a/tests/test-admin-deploy-karg.sh
+++ b/tests/test-admin-deploy-karg.sh
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ set -euo pipefail
 # Exports OSTREE_SYSROOT so --sysroot not needed.
 setup_os_repository "archive" "syslinux"
 
-echo "1..4"
+echo "1..5"
 
 ${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=sysroot/ostree/repo pull-local --remote=testos testos-repo testos/buildmain/x86_64-runtime
 rev=$(${CMD_PREFIX} ostree --repo=sysroot/ostree/repo rev-parse testos/buildmain/x86_64-runtime)
@@ -77,3 +77,10 @@ assert_not_file_has_content sysroot/boot/loader/entries/ostree-2-testos.conf 'op
 assert_not_file_has_content sysroot/boot/loader/entries/ostree-2-testos.conf 'options.*APPENDARG=VALAPPEND'
 
 echo "ok deploy --karg-delete"
+
+${CMD_PREFIX} ostree admin deploy  --os=testos --karg-append="test=\"1 2\"" testos:testos/buildmain/x86_64-runtime
+assert_file_has_content sysroot/boot/loader/entries/ostree-2-testos.conf 'options.*test="1 2"'
+${CMD_PREFIX} ostree admin deploy  --os=testos --karg-delete="test=\"1 2\"" testos:testos/buildmain/x86_64-runtime
+assert_not_file_has_content sysroot/boot/loader/entries/ostree-2-testos.conf 'options.*test="1 2"'
+
+echo "ok deploy --karg-delete with quotes"