diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index cfc83c68e3df5..02612ff8a7247 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -151,6 +151,8 @@ def _supports_symlinks():
         long_description = pypandoc.convert('README.md', 'rst')
     except ImportError:
         print("Could not import pypandoc - required to package PySpark", file=sys.stderr)
+    except OSError:
+        print("Could not convert - pandoc is not installed", file=sys.stderr)
 
     setup(
         name='pyspark',