diff --git a/benchmarks/swebenchmultimodal/run_infer.py b/benchmarks/swebenchmultimodal/run_infer.py
index 1485aa98a..62a94cf0f 100644
--- a/benchmarks/swebenchmultimodal/run_infer.py
+++ b/benchmarks/swebenchmultimodal/run_infer.py
@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@ def prepare_workspace(
                 f"(tag prefix: {IMAGE_TAG_PREFIX}, resource_factor: {resource_factor})"
             )
             startup_timeout = float(os.getenv("REMOTE_RUNTIME_STARTUP_TIMEOUT", "600"))
+            api_timeout = float(os.getenv("REMOTE_API_TIMEOUT", "300"))
             workspace = APIRemoteWorkspace(
                 runtime_api_url=os.getenv(
                     "RUNTIME_API_URL", "https://runtime.eval.all-hands.dev"
@@ -215,6 +216,7 @@ def prepare_workspace(
                 server_image=agent_server_image,
                 init_timeout=startup_timeout,
                 startup_wait_timeout=startup_timeout,
+                api_timeout=api_timeout,
                 target_type="source" if "source" in build_target else "binary",
                 forward_env=forward_env or [],
                 resource_factor=resource_factor,
diff --git a/benchmarks/utils/Dockerfile.agent-layer b/benchmarks/utils/Dockerfile.agent-layer
index eb526285d..d4d81e266 100644
--- a/benchmarks/utils/Dockerfile.agent-layer
+++ b/benchmarks/utils/Dockerfile.agent-layer
@@ -21,5 +21,15 @@ ARG USERNAME=openhands
 ARG OPENHANDS_BUILD_GIT_SHA=unknown
 ENV OPENHANDS_BUILD_GIT_SHA=${OPENHANDS_BUILD_GIT_SHA}
 ENV UV_PYTHON_INSTALL_DIR=/agent-server/uv-managed-python
+
+# Copy the Python 3.13 runtime from the builder so the venv's symlinks resolve.
+# Since SDK v1.15.0 the builder venv uses --python-preference only-system,
+# meaning .venv/bin/python symlinks to /usr/local/bin/python3.13. The eval-base
+# image doesn't have Python 3.13, so we bring the interpreter and stdlib along.
+COPY --from=builder /usr/local/bin/python3.13 /usr/local/bin/python3.13
+COPY --from=builder /usr/local/lib/python3.13 /usr/local/lib/python3.13
+COPY --from=builder /usr/local/lib/libpython3.13* /usr/local/lib/
+ENV LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib
+
 COPY --chown=${USERNAME}:${USERNAME} --from=builder /agent-server /agent-server
 ENTRYPOINT ["/agent-server/.venv/bin/python", "-m", "openhands.agent_server"]