diff -u b/src/journal.sh b/src/journal.sh
--- b/src/journal.sh
+++ b/src/journal.sh
@@ -283,8 +297,25 @@
 #=cut

 __INTERNAL_JournalXMLCreate() {
-    [[ "$BEAKERLIB_JOURNAL" == "0" ]] || $__INTERNAL_JOURNALIST $__INTERNAL_XSLT --metafile \
-    "$__INTERNAL_BEAKERLIB_METAFILE" --journal "$__INTERNAL_BEAKERLIB_JOURNAL"
+    local res=0
+    [[ "$BEAKERLIB_JOURNAL" == "0" ]] || {
+      if which python &> /dev/null; then
+        $__INTERNAL_JOURNALIST $__INTERNAL_XSLT --metafile \
+          "$__INTERNAL_BEAKERLIB_METAFILE" --journal "$__INTERNAL_BEAKERLIB_JOURNAL"
+        res=$?
+        if [[ $res -eq 2 ]]; then
+          rlLogError "cannot create journal.xml due to missing some python module"
+        elif [[ $res -eq 3 ]]; then
+          rlLogError "cannot create journal.xml due to missing python lxml module"
+        elif [[ $res -ne 0 ]]; then
+          rlLogError "journal.xml creation failed!"
+        fi
+      else
+        rlLogError "cannot create journal.xml due to missing python interpreter"
+        let res++
+      fi
+    }
+    return $res
 }


diff -u b/src/python/journalling.py b/src/python/journalling.py
--- b/src/python/journalling.py
+++ b/src/python/journalling.py
@@ -30,11 +30,15 @@
     import six
     import time
     import base64
-    from lxml import etree
     from optparse import OptionParser
 except ImportError as e:
     sys.stderr.write("Python ImportError: " + str(e) + "\nExiting unsuccessfully.\n")
-    exit(1)
+    exit(2)
+try:
+    from lxml import etree
+except ImportError as e:
+    sys.stderr.write("Python ImportError: " + str(e) + "\nExiting unsuccessfully.\n")
+    exit(3)


 xmlForbidden = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,