Using Ubuntu 16.04, I installed powerline (sudo apt install powerline); I enabled it for bash successfully, but when I tried to enable it in my .vimrc file, using the following lines:
" Powerline
set rtp+=/usr/share/powerline/bindings/vim/
set laststatus=2
set t_Co=256
it didn't work. I did some troubleshooting, and discovered that /usr/share/powerline/bindings/vim/ doesn't exist, although there are folders for a number of other bindings (e.g., bsh, awesome, etc.).