address feedback: raise informative error message

python/pyarrow/array.pxi

@@ -1839,7 +1839,7 @@ cdef class Array(_PandasConvertible):
             void* c_type_ptr
             shared_ptr[CArray] c_array
 
-        if c_device_array.device_type == 2:
+        if c_device_array.device_type == ARROW_DEVICE_CUDA:
             _ensure_cuda_loaded()
 
         c_type = pyarrow_unwrap_data_type(type)

python/pyarrow/includes/libarrow.pxd

@@ -2916,6 +2916,9 @@ cdef extern from "arrow/c/abi.h":
     cdef struct ArrowArrayStream:
         void (*release)(ArrowArrayStream*) noexcept nogil
 
+    ctypedef int32_t ArrowDeviceType
+    cdef ArrowDeviceType ARROW_DEVICE_CUDA
+
     cdef struct ArrowDeviceArray:
         ArrowArray array
         int64_t device_id

python/pyarrow/lib.pyx

@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ UnionMode_DENSE = _UnionMode_DENSE
 
 __pc = None
 __pac = None
-__cuda_loaded = False
+__cuda_loaded = None
 
 
 def _pc():
@@ -148,12 +148,18 @@ def _ensure_cuda_loaded():
     # Try importing the cuda module to ensure libarrow_cuda gets loaded
     # to register the CUDA device for the C Data Interface import
     global __cuda_loaded
-    if not __cuda_loaded:
+    if __cuda_loaded is None:
         try:
             import pyarrow.cuda  # no-cython-lint
-        except ImportError:
-            pass
-        __cuda_loaded = True
+            __cuda_loaded = True
+        except ImportError as exc:
+            __cuda_loaded = str(exc)
+
+    if __cuda_loaded is not True:
+        raise ImportError(
+            "Trying to import data on a CUDA device, but PyArrow is not built with "
+            f"CUDA support.\n(importing 'pyarrow.cuda' resulted in \"{__cuda_loaded}\")."
+        )
 
 
 def _gdb_test_session():

python/pyarrow/table.pxi

@@ -3656,7 +3656,7 @@ cdef class RecordBatch(_Tabular):
             void* c_schema_ptr
             shared_ptr[CRecordBatch] c_batch
 
-        if c_device_array.device_type == 2:
+        if c_device_array.device_type == ARROW_DEVICE_CUDA:
             _ensure_cuda_loaded()
 
         c_schema = pyarrow_unwrap_schema(schema)

python/pyarrow/tests/test_cffi.py

@@ -697,3 +697,24 @@ def test_roundtrip_chunked_array_capsule_requested_schema():
     requested_capsule = requested_type.__arrow_c_schema__()
     with pytest.raises(NotImplementedError):
         chunked.__arrow_c_stream__(requested_capsule)
+
+
+def test_import_device_no_cuda():
+    try:
+        import pyarrow.cuda  # noqa
+    except ImportError:
+        pass
+    else:
+        pytest.skip("pyarrow.cuda is available")
+
+    c_array = ffi.new("struct ArrowDeviceArray*")
+    ptr_array = int(ffi.cast("uintptr_t", c_array))
+    arr = pa.array([1, 2, 3], type=pa.int64())
+    arr._export_to_c_device(ptr_array)
+
+    # patch the device type of the struct, this results in an invalid ArrowDeviceArray
+    # but this is just to test we raise am error before actually importing buffers
+    c_array.device_type = 2  # ARROW_DEVICE_CUDA
+
+    with pytest.raises(ImportError, match="Trying to import data on a CUDA device"):
+        pa.Array._import_from_c_device(ptr_array, arr.type)