proposed fix for #26155

salt/states/pip_state.py

@@ -59,7 +59,11 @@ def __virtual__():
     '''
     Only load if the pip module is available in __salt__
     '''
-    if HAS_PIP and 'pip.list' in __salt__:
+    if not HAS_PIP:
+        logger.warning(
+            'An importable pip module could not be found on your system'
+        )
+    if 'pip.list' in __salt__:
         return __virtualname__
     return False
 
@@ -100,6 +104,16 @@ def _check_pkg_version_format(pkg):
 
     ret = {'result': False, 'comment': None,
            'prefix': None, 'version_spec': None}
+
+    if not HAS_PIP:
+        ret['comment'] = (
+            'An importable pip module is required but could not be found on '
+            'your system. This usually means that the system''s pip package '
+            'is not installed properly.'
+        )
+
+        return ret
+
     from_vcs = False
     try:
         # Get the requirement object from the pip library