diff --git a/contrib/packager.io/functions.sh b/contrib/packager.io/functions.sh
index bb236be77d..9149754a66 100755
--- a/contrib/packager.io/functions.sh
+++ b/contrib/packager.io/functions.sh
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 #
 # packager.io postinstall script functions
 #
+Color_Off='\033[0m'
+On_Red='\033[41m'
 
 function detect_docker() {
   if [ -n "$(grep docker </proc/1/cgroup)" ]; then
@@ -50,9 +52,19 @@ function detect_python() {
     echo "# Python environment already present"
     # Extract earliest python version initialised from /opt/inventree/env/lib
     SETUP_PYTHON=$(ls -1 ${APP_HOME}/env/bin/python* | sort | head -n 1)
-    echo "# Found earliest version: ${SETUP_PYTHON}"
+    echo "# Found earlier used version: ${SETUP_PYTHON}"
   else
-    echo "# No python environment found - using ${SETUP_PYTHON}"
+    echo "# No python environment found - using environment variable: ${SETUP_PYTHON}"
+  fi
+
+  # Ensure python can be executed - abort if not
+  if [ -z "$(which ${SETUP_PYTHON})" ]; then
+    echo "${On_Red}"
+    echo "# Python ${SETUP_PYTHON} not found - aborting!"
+    echo "# Please ensure python can be executed with the command '$SETUP_PYTHON' by the current user '$USER'."
+    echo "# If you are using a different python version, please set the environment variable SETUP_PYTHON to the correct command - eg. 'python3.10'."
+    echo "${Color_Off}"
+    exit 1
   fi
 }