diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/powerline/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/powerline/default.nix
index 3c4c6ae4ec7d..65325f70b450 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/powerline/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/powerline/default.nix
@@ -1,26 +1,38 @@
 { lib
-, fetchurl
+, fetchFromGitHub
+, python
 , buildPythonPackage
+, socat
 , psutil
+, hglib
 , pygit2
+, pyuv
+, i3ipc
 }:
 
-# The source of this package needs to be patched to include the full path to
-# the executables of git, mercurial and bazaar.
+# TODO: bzr support is missing because nixpkgs switched to `breezy`
 
 buildPythonPackage rec {
-  version  = "2.7";
+  version  = "2.8.1";
   pname = "powerline";
 
-  src = fetchurl {
-    url    = "https://github.com/powerline/powerline/archive/${version}.tar.gz";
-    name   = "${pname}-${version}.tar.gz";
-    sha256 = "1h1j2rfphvfdq6mmfyn5bql45hzrwxkhpc2jcwf0vrl3slzkl5s5";
+  src = fetchFromGitHub {
+    owner = pname;
+    repo = pname;
+    rev = version;
+    sha256 = "0xscckcbw75pbcl4546ndrjs4682pn2sqqrd6qvqm0s6zswg7a0y";
   };
 
-  propagatedBuildInputs = [ psutil pygit2];
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [
+    socat
+    psutil
+    hglib
+    pygit2
+    pyuv
+    i3ipc
+  ];
 
-# error: This is still beta and some tests still fail
+  # tests are travis-specific
   doCheck = false;
 
   postInstall = ''
@@ -29,19 +41,9 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
     install -m644 "font/PowerlineSymbols.otf" "$out/share/fonts/OTF/PowerlineSymbols.otf"
     install -m644 "font/10-powerline-symbols.conf" "$out/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-powerline-symbols.conf"
 
-    install -dm755 "$out/share/vim/vimfiles/plugin"
-    install -m644 "powerline/bindings/vim/plugin/powerline.vim" "$out/share/vim/vimfiles/plugin/powerline.vim"
-
-    install -dm755 "$out/share/zsh/site-contrib"
-    install -m644 "powerline/bindings/zsh/powerline.zsh" "$out/share/zsh/site-contrib/powerline.zsh"
-
-    install -dm755 "$out/share/tmux"
-    install -m644 "powerline/bindings/tmux/powerline.conf" "$out/share/tmux/powerline.conf"
-    
-    install -dm755 "$out/share/fish/vendor_functions.d"
-    install -m644 "powerline/bindings/fish/powerline-setup.fish" "$out/share/fish/vendor_functions.d/powerline-setup.fish"
-
-    '';
+    cp -ra powerline/bindings/{bash,fish,shell,tcsh,tmux,vim,zsh} $out/share/
+    rm $out/share/*/*.py
+  '';
 
   meta = {
     homepage    = "https://github.com/powerline/powerline";
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 268e81492e29..fd47b359681f 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -8085,6 +8085,7 @@ in
 
   grml-zsh-config = callPackage ../shells/zsh/grml-zsh-config { };
 
+  powerline = with python3Packages; toPythonApplication powerline;
 
   ### DEVELOPMENT / COMPILERS