I have seen two sets of documentation with instructions for running the regression test:
http://www.boost.org/more/regression.html
and
http://engineering.meta-comm.com/boost.aspx
Neither of them mention user-config.jam.
I stumbled through the process of running the regression test, and finally got them to work after about a week. Rene spent a lot of time helping me with the problem. Also Valodia pointed out the correct syntax for specifying an alternative gcc compiler. This syntax isn't documented either, but is most important:
# Configure gcc (default version)If possible the people who manage these pages should :
using gcc : : /usr/bin/g++-4.1.1 ;